Halloween Tricks
by Higuchimon
Summary: [8/8 chapters, complete, Juudai & Johan friendship] Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.
1. Sudden Party Plans

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** Sudden Party Plans  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 2,717  
**Chapter Word Count:** 2,717  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 1 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. Date-wise, it's late October, about four days before Halloween, 2006. I researched how Halloween is celebrated in both Sweden and Japan for this. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

Juudai stretched out underneath the tree at the top of the cliff, playing a little with a leaf he'd found. It was fall, or at least that was what the calendar said. If you looked around at the green leaves still on the trees, the grass that hadn't so much as thinned out, and the people in swimsuits playing in the water, you certainly wouldn't know it around here. Which was just fine and dandy with the young duelist.

"So, nice view you've got up here," a voice spoke, one that was quickly growing familiar to him, and he sat up, grinning. Johan Andersen ambled into view, Ruby Carbuncle perched firmly on his shoulder. As soon as Juudai saw that, his own partner Hane Kuriboh flittered into existence, tackling Ruby with a cheerful squeal.

"Hey! Yeah, I love it." He gestured downward with one hand, indicating the whole sprawling view of the beach and the dorms that could be had from up there. It was kind of hard to see the Ra dorm, but both Obelisk dorms and the Osiris dorm were in full view.

Johan settled down beside him, a light grin on his lips. "Nothing like this at North School."

"What's it like up there, anyway?" Juudai wondered, picking up a piece of grass and shredding it a little between his fingers. "Manjoume doesn't talk about it a whole lot."

"You'd probably think it was cold." Johan replied. "I'm pretty used to this. This is warm weather for me. _Really_ warm."

He picked up a leaf himself and played with it. "But I love it up there. Not that I'm not enjoying being here." He shot a quick glance towards Juudai, who grinned cheerfully back at him.

"Duel Academia's the greatest! It's hard to believe I'm going to have to leave at the end of the year." Juudai pouted a little, but only for the briefest of seconds. Johan tilted his head some.

"What are you going to be doing after you graduate?" That was a question most third years started thinking about at some point, though usually not at the start of the year. Johan couldn't say he was all that surprised that Juudai hadn't seemed to give it much thought at all, though.

Now he just shrugged casually. "I guess I'll go into the Pros. But I dueled some of those last year. They weren't all that much of a challenge." Not like some of his other duels. Daitoukuji-sensei. Kagemaru. Edo. The Light of Ruin. And frankly, dueling for money instead of for fun really sounded _boring_ the more thought he put into it.

"There'll be something you can do," Johan reassured him. He thought about his own dream, and wondered if he should mention it to Juudai. _No. Not just yet._ After all, they barely knew each other. Maybe another time.

Juudai nodded, shredding another blade of grass. He wasn't usually at any kind of a loss for words, and he didn't feel like he was now. Being quiet around Johan just seemed a little natural. Then something crossed his mind.

"Isn't there some kind of a holiday or something coming up?" He hadn't really paid that much attention to it before. But he thought he remembered something about it.

Johan closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. "Oh, right!" He grinned, his eyes popping back open. "It's almost Halloween. This coming up Tuesday. What do you do around here for it?"

"Uh, well." Juudai sat up a bit, thinking some himself. "Not a whole lot that I can remember. I mean, sometimes back home, some of the little kids would dress up and go around for candy, like they do in America, but not here, here. You know, at school."

"You mean this is going to be your third Halloween here and you haven't done anything?" Johan asked, that grin still tugging at the corners of his mouth. Juudai shrugged, answering it with one of his own.

"Guess so. I wasn't thinking much about it the first year I was here, cause everything was all new and exciting. And last year, Shou had just gotten promoted into Ra Yellow, so we were celebrating that." And not long after that, Edo had turned both his and Kaiser's lives upside down, and he hadn't really thought about celebrating anything for months.

_This year's different!_ This year, he had Johan. And Jim and O'Brien and Amon, but he hadn't really gotten to know any of them yet, and Edo was still around somewhere, and there was Kenzan and Shou and Asuka and Fubuki and Manjoume and Rei. So, they could _all_ do something! In fact…the idea burst into his mind in a brilliant blaze of light.

"Maybe we could ask Principal Samejima if we could throw some kind of a Halloween party! Everyone can dress up, like they did for the school festival!" Seeing Johan's curiously tilted head, he quickly explained how that had happened back in his first year.

"That sounds like a lot of fun. Think you'll have one of those this year too?"

Juudai shrugged some. "Maybe! Last year it got cancelled because of Genex, but nothing like that's going on now." The dis-belt on his wrist almost seemed to twitch, but he ignored it in favor of this new idea. "What would you want to dress up as?"

"I don't know yet. We don't even know if we can!" Johan couldn't help but laugh at Juudai's instant enthusiasm.

"Of course we can." Juudai waved aside Johan's objection with casual ease. Why wouldn't they be able to? All they had to do was ask, Samejima would say yes, and then they'd put everything together. Sure, they would only have a couple of days, but he'd done some of his best duels with even less preparation than that!

Johan glanced over the edge of the cliff, his gaze going from one dorm to the other, then back to Juudai. "Where could we have it at? Osiris is a little on the small side." He didn't want to say that he didn't think the Obelisk Blues would be all that happy about sharing their space either.

"There's a couple of big rooms in the main building we could use," Juudai replied with immediately. "Or we could hold it outside." That was even better. Outside, after dark! His imagination began to boil over with images and thoughts and plans. He jumped to his feet quickly. "Come on, let's go talk to the principal!"

"Hold on!" Johan tugged him back down quickly. "Where are we going to get everything from?"

"There's all kinds of supplies just laying around in places. You wouldn't believe everything that's happened around here." Juudai told him. "And we're all good at making things happen on short notice. Just you wait and see!"

Johan could still just laugh, and he pulled himself to his own feet this time. "All right, if you say so. Come on, let's go talk to him then."

Juudai's customary cheerful grin wreathed across his face, and he headed down the far side of the cliff quickly. Hane Kuriboh and Ruby Carbuncle paused briefly in their game to chirrup at their respective partners, wanting to know where they were going and why they couldn't just sit there so they could keep on playing.

"Come on, Ruby!" Johan beckoned to her, almost as fired up as Juudai was about this the more he thought about it. "You can play with Hane Kuriboh some more later!" His partner obviously took that as a promise, as she barely took the time to swipe slightly at the feathered puffball's wings before zooming back over to Johan.

Working their way down from the cliff to the more populated areas of the school didn't take all that long. Juudai babbled a mile a minute, trying to get every idea in his head out, and apparently trying to get them all out at the same time. Johan paid attention, doing what he could to sort the ideas out, at least as best that he could, and hopefully he'd be able to find the ones that could actually be accomplished in what time they had.

"A lot of people probably still have their costumes from back then," Juudai said, heading into the main building. "But they could make new ones if they wanted, or order them. A whole lot of places are good about delivering what we want around here. Guess it comes from being owned by Kaiba-sama." That was something he did regret about the trip to Domino: he'd never gotten a chance to meet with the school's owner. He'd heard that Saioh had, but _he_ hadn't.

Still, meeting Yuugi's Grandpa hadn't been that bad, and maybe he'd meet Yuugi one day?

He was so distracted by the sudden turn his thoughts had taken, he didn't see someone stepping out of the library as they passed it, not until he'd already crashed into them.

"Oh, sorry about that!" Juudai scrambled back to his feet with Johan's help and grinned at the other. "Wasn't watching where I was going."

"Of course you weren't." It was an Obelisk Blue student who stood there, brushing himself off and glaring at Juudai out of piercing black eyes. "I wouldn't expect a _Red_ to be watching where he was going."

Juudai blinked a few times. "Hey, are you new? I don't think I've seen you around here before." He rubbed the back of his head and grinned. "Though, I could have and I just don't remember it."

"What business is it of yours if I am?" the Obelisk snapped before looking at Johan. "You could really do better for a friend than this _Red_, Andersen-kun. I'm sure he only beat you by some kind of a fluke." His lip curled derisively as he glared back to Juudai. "If he were really any good, he wouldn't be a _Red_." He almost seemed to spit the word out as if it tasted bad on his tongue.

Before either of them could have formed something coherent in response, the Blue student stalked on past and quickly out of sight. Johan glanced at Juudai, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Does that happen a lot around here?"

"Used to happen all the time." Juudai shrugged casually. "A lot of the Blues got it knocked out of them after that whole Society of Light thing. He'll get over it. Come on, Principal Samejima's office is right down this way."

Johan hurried along with Juudai, who started up his litany of every thing that he wanted to do and have done for this party. Thoughts of the new Blue student faded out of both of their minds in the more immediate distraction of the planning.

Getting in to see the Principal was a lot easier than Johan himself might have expected. Granted, he had a fairly easy time seeing Ichinose, but since the Principal of North School was his guardian, that was to be expected. He didn't think Juudai had that kind of relationship here, though.

"What can I do for you, Juudai-kun, Johan-kun?" Samejima asked as the two of them entered his office. There were no available chairs to sit in, but Juudai wasn't quite the type to sit down anyway, not when he had something like this on his mind.

"Could we have a Halloween party, Principal Samejima?" Juudai got right down to business. "It's just in a few more days, and it would be a really great way to welcome the new students, and Johan and Jim and all the others, too! Maybe we could even arrange some duels or something. Everyone could dress up and we could make all kinds of fun foods and it would be the best party _ever_!"

Samejima steepled his fingers before him thoughtfully. "There isn't much time left to pull something like that together."

"Johan said the same thing." Juudai waved one hand casually. "But we're good at it, like I told him. I think we can do it."

The principal looked at the two of them, and Johan and Juudai both could only imagine what sort of thoughts might be going through his mind. "Very well," he said at last. "I'll add it to the afternoon announcements, and you can begin preparing as soon as you'd like."

"Great!" Juudai cheered, eyes bright and dancing. "You won't regret this! We're going to have a lot of fun!"

Samejima nodded slightly, a hint of amusement in his eyes. "I'm certain that you will. You had best get to work on it if you want to be ready by then."

"Right! Come on, Johan!" Juudai tugged his friend right on out of there, chattering with even more animation about what he had planned in his head. Johan glanced over his shoulder towards the Principal, and had time only to see him watching them leave, a strange look in his eyes, before the door closed behind them and he was pulled more firmly into the powerful sphere of Juudai's enthusiasm. That gave him absolutely no time to think about what he had seen, or even if he had seen it at all.

Juudai headed right for the Osiris Red dorm, paying little attention to what was going on around him. Johan ambled along beside him, making sure that he didn't bump into anything. _Juudai hasn't acted like this before._ He supposed he shouldn't be all that surprised, since it was hardly as if he knew what Juudai would be like all the time, but still, it just didn't seem quite right.

"Aniki!" Both Kenzan and Shou waved, calling out to Juudai as he showed up. Johan grinned; he hadn't really had a chance to meet either of them for more than a few seconds yet. He'd spent most of his time either in class or with Juudai.

"Hey, guys! Guess what: we're going to have a Halloween party! Johan and I got it cleared with Principal Samejima!" Juudai barely gave them time to react before he was going on about it again. Johan let him talk; there was something oddly pleasant about Juudai's voice, especially when he was so enthusiastic about what he was talking about anyway.

Shou tilted his head a bit to the side curiously once Juudai paused for a breath or two. "I could help with the decorations," he said, "and there's still spare costumes around. Some of them haven't even been worn yet."

"I thought there would be!" Juudai declared, throwing one fist up into the air. "We can get Tome-san to make the food. She makes the most awesome …everything! I haven't had anything of hers I don't like yet! Did I ever tell you that she made me lunch right in the middle of Kaiser's school duel?"

"Decorations, food, costumes." Johan ticked the various items off on his list, trying not to listen too much to some of Juudai's reminiscences. Not that they weren't fascinating, but when they were trying to plan things, they were a bit distracting. "You said something about some duels, Juudai?"

Juudai nodded quickly. "That could be the best part! Do we have anyone around here who plays a fiend deck? Or something with zombies? I bet Camula would love Halloween."

Sometimes Juudai failed to recall that not everyone had been there for some of what he remembered. Shou shuddered just at the mention of the vampire of the Seven Stars, while Kenzan and Johan simply looked baffled. Juudai didn't bother to explain, his mind a thousand miles away already. "Even if we don't have anyone with decks like that, the dueling'll be fun enough without that. Maybe we should rig up something to decide who duels who?"

They fell into the deep decision of how to organize it all, all of them, even Johan, working together easily on everything, as if they'd done this sort of event time after time.

As afternoon faded away and evening began to enclose around them, none of the group saw a pair of angry eyes watching them from the gathering darkness near the dorm building. _So you want a Halloween party, Yuuki Juudai? I'll give you one that you won't ever forget. And show everyone how much of a phony you really are, you **Red**._

**To Be Continued**


	2. Plotting For The Party

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** Plotting For The Party  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 5,578  
**Chapter Word Count:** 2,861  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 2 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. Date-wise, it's late October, about four days before Halloween, 2006. I researched how Halloween is celebrated in both Sweden and Japan for this. There are varying customs in Sweden, so I sort of melded things together for Johan's version of it. Well, GX *is* an AU in and of itself, after all! I'd actually wanted this up a few days ago, but some things got in the way. I hope I can update more quickly next time, since I want my last update to happen on Halloween. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

"A week? You're joking!" Juudai stared at Johan, shaking his head. He didn't really want to _not_ believe Johan, but he wanted to at the same time. "You guys celebrate Halloween for a whole _week_?"

Johan nodded, getting comfortable on Juudai's bed as he did. Shou and Kenzan were seated a little bit away; he hadn't really talked to them too much, though they'd all been busy trying to get everything planned out for the Halloween party. They all sort of talked to each other, really.

"From about October 31st to the sixth of November," Johan said. "It's called Alla Helgons Dag, and we generally get some time off from school for it. Sometimes some kids go around trick or treating, too. I never did, though."

"What would you have dressed as if you did?" Juudai asked curiously, toying a bit with a pen. He was taking notes for the party plans with far more seriousness than he had for half of his classes since the day he'd arrived. Professor Chronos might have even been impressed, if he hadn't been furious at the same time.

Johan considered a little. "I don't know. I really didn't ever think about it. Maybe a prince or something." He ran a hand across Juudai's bedspread thoughtfully. "Though…" A thought he'd kept buried in the back of his head, for something he'd never considered wearing in public, tried to worm its way out, and he pushed it back down with practiced ease.

"Though?" Juudai asked, leaning forward as he did. Anything else he could learn about Johan, who tended to be tight-lipped about his past, would be great.

"Nothing." Johan shook his head a bit. "So, what else do we need to figure out for this?"

Juudai pouted for a moment before he turned back to his list. "Principal Samejima has already made the announcement, so everyone knows to get a costume of some kind, and we should have a signup list so we know who will want to duel. We should have at least three of those, I think, and people with fiend decks and zombie decks should really be welcome."

Johan, Shou, and Kenzan all nodded. "I think there's someone who has a fiend deck in Obelisk," Kenzan said thoughtfully. Sorano had mentioned something about one of the new students, but he couldn't remember who it was offhand. He'd have to ask again the next time he saw his friend.

"Great! We'll have to find them and get them to duel!" Juudai made another note, grinning wildly. He was going to be dueling; that went without saying. This was his party, after all. "And we need to make sure everyone knows that they're invited, especially O'Brien, Jim, and Amon!" He really wanted to do his best to make sure they were welcome at Duel Academia.

"Tome-san's going to be fixing a lot of food for us. Or I hope she will, once I ask her." Juudai made another note to remind himself to do that. "What do people eat around Halloween, anyway?" He'd never bothered with noticing any real differences in food for holidays. Food was food, and delicious, what did it matter what time of year it was?

"Lots of different things. Depends on where you're talking about. Pumpkins are pretty popular all over, I think," Johan said. "We could see if she could make pumpkin pie or cookies or something."

That sounded pretty good to Juudai. Of course, there was very little that was edible that _didn't_ sound good to him.

"I think that's just about everything," Juudai decided after a quick look over his list. "We can do the decorations after class and stuff." He thought for a second. "We should probably pick out where we want to have the duel, too."

Shou's eyes had been flickering back and forth between Johan and Juudai the whole time, and he hadn't said a great deal. He sat up a bit more now. "There's a big stretch of beach on the west side of the island. It's clear enough for just about the whole school to go there."

"Shou, that's brilliant!" Juudai grinned at his friend, and Shou sat up a bit straighter himself, eyes gleaming joyfully. "How'd you find it?"

"Uh…" Shou now fidgeted some, a faint blush tingeing his cheeks. "I found it last year, when I was…when you were gone. After Edo, I mean…"

Juudai blinked a couple of times, then shrugged some, grinning. "All right. You'll have to show us later, so we know how to get things decorated."

Shou nodded briefly, and Juudai stared at his list again. There wasn't anything else that he could think of that they could do right now. Everything was going to have to wait as much as it could until the big day itself. He was practically wriggling in pleasure at the thought of how great this party was going to be. And it would be a _big_ party, not something just for the Obelisks, or even for the Obelisks and the Ras. It would be for the whole school, the way that everything should be.

"So," he looked back over at Johan as something else crossed his mind. "How exactly do you celebrate Halloween for a whole week?"

Johan laughed, getting himself a bit more comfortable. "There's lots of parties, for one thing. Schools close down for a day or two at least. The trick or treating, honoring the dead." His eyes flickered briefly for a moment or two, as if thinking of something else, and Juudai inched closer. As happened quite a bit when they were around each other, so far as he was concerned, no one else was in the room.

"Is there someone …I mean…" He knew what he wanted to ask, but the right way to ask it escaped him at the moment. Johan glanced at him, his jewel-bright eyes darkened just the slightest bit before he spoke.

"Well, since we've got everything taken care of that we can, why don't we go and ask Tome-san if she'll make the party food for us?" he suggested. Juudai looked at him a bit piercingly, then nodded some, his usual brilliant smile wreathing across his features.

"Sure! Come on, we can get some new cards while we're there." Juudai waved at Shou and Kenzan before he headed out of the door, one hand firmly wrapped around Johan's wrist as he did.

Shou glanced at Kenzan as the door banged shut behind the two. He really wasn't sure what he wanted to say, and his gaze returned to the door a bit longingly. "Aniki sure spends a lot of time with Johan now, doesn't he?"

"Guess they hit it off." Kenzan shrugged some as he started to go through his deck. He'd picked up some new cards at Tome-san's shop and wanted to see if there was anything in there he could use for his deck. Maybe Sorano could give him a hand. He needed to talk to him anyway, to see if he knew who that fiend duelist was. He put his deck away as soon as the thought occurred to him. "I'm gonna go talk to Sorano," he said, heading out the door without a glance back.

Shou opened his mouth and stared after him, then closed his mouth, drooping a little. Most of the time when Juudai talked to him, it was to talk about Johan. He wasn't even all that sure Juudai heard him when he said things sometimes. _What does Johan have that I don't?_

Unfortunately, it was going to be a very long time before Shou got any answers to that.

* * *

Yamaguchi Hachiro lay on his back on a couch in the Obelisk Blue boy's dorm building, listening to the sounds all around him. People were talking about anything you'd expect to hear in a place like this. Cards, dueling, girls, rivals. But mostly cards and dueling. And once in a while, he caught a mention of something that those in second and third year called "The Society of Light". He wasn't sure what that was about, but no one seemed interested in saying anything clearly about it. Just a few hints here and there, none of which made any kind of sense.

Which meant it probably didn't make any kind of a difference in the long run. If it were that important, people would want to tell him about it, wouldn't they? He _was_ Yamaguchi Hachiro, oldest son and heir to a very respectable fortune. He was going to enter the Pros in a few years and add to the family wealth before selecting a young lady as his wife and getting on with making the next generation of Yamaguichis. Perhaps they weren't as wealthy as _some_ families, but he had certain standards to uphold.

_That stupid Osiris Red. Making everyone think he's a good duelist._ If Yuuki Juudai had won any truly serious duels, then it was by sheer dumb luck. That was why he was still a Red. If he had talent, eh would at least be in Ra Yellow or even Obelisk Blue. Since he wasn't, he was obviously not as good as everyone said he was

. That was all there was to it, and if everyone else was too blinded by his charisma and his charm to notice, then Hachiro would see to it that they saw the truth.

"Hey, Yamaguchi." He tilted his head up when he heard the voice calling his name. It was a second year, one he recognized from his own days in junior high. He'd lost at least twice to his Horus deck, sadly enough.

"Sorano-senpai." He nodded towards the older student respectfully. "Did you need some help?" He hoped that he did. Helping Sorano Taigo would be _thrilling_.

Sorano nodded a bit. "You play a fiend deck, right?" he asked, sitting down in a comfortable chair near him. Not that there was any such thing as an _un_comfortable chair in Obelisk Blue.

"Right." He'd always had a taste for them, finding them interesting, instead of repulsive, like so many of his peers. Besides, it tended to make his opponents do a double-take when a perfectly handsome young man like him played some of his favorite monsters. More than once that had won him the duel. Not always. But enough.

"Did you hear about that party that Yuuki Juudai-senpai is holding?" That was Sorano's next question. Hachiro frowned a little; that Red was having a _party_? The nerve!

"Not really. What kind of a party is it?" From the gleam in Sorano's eyes, he'd sadly been one of those taken in by Yuuki's claims of having done something intelligent once or twice. Hachiro guessed that no one was perfect.

Sorano leaned back, lacing his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. "It's a Halloween party. Sounds like it's going to be pretty good, too. A lot of people are going to be dressing up for it, too. Kenzan says he can introduce me to Juudai-senpai, too. They're really good friends."

Hachiro just nodded, waiting to see exactly what that had to do with what kind of a deck he played. Sorano continued after a minute or so. "There's going to be three duels played. Juudai-senpai is hoping that someone with a fiend deck would take part. You up for it?"

_He wants what?_ Hachiro wasn't entirely clear that he'd actually heard that at first. _He wants to duel…_ A slow smile suddenly twisted his lips as an idea occurred to him. "Who's going to be dueling who?" He didn't really want to duel anyone but Juudai. Anyone else wouldn't be worth it.

"I'm not sure, but I think Juudai-senpai is. He never turns down the chance to duel if he can help it." Sorano replied. Hachiro grinned even more. "So, should I let them know you're in?"

Hachiro slowly pulled himself to his feet. "Sure. I should probably go through my deck a little too."

"You don't have to rush on it. It's not until Halloween anyway. Hey, are you going to be dressing up?" Sorano cracked one eye open to look at him. "I was thinking about dressing up as Death Jinn Satan or White Thief myself."

"Mm…I like the thought of Death Jinn Satan myself," Hachiro said thoughtfully, considering the two options. It would be a relatively easy costume, and the more he considered it, the more he personally liked it.

Sorano nodded, closing his eyes again. "You'd probably pull it off better than I would. Go for it."

"I think I will." And that wasn't the only idea that was bubbling around in Hachiro's brain at the moment. This was his chance, his big chance, maybe even his _only_ chance to actually do something to prove how ridiculous and wrong that Yuuki Juudai was. _I bet he's a coward. If he can't duel something, he'll run away from it._ The problem was going to be in how to prove that, though, and to prove it in public.

Not that he didn't want to duel the Osiris Red. He did, more than almost anything. His deck would stomp all over those ridiculous Elemental Heroes. Just sheer, raw, bone-headed, idiotic _luck_, that was all that the brat had. It didn't matter that Juudai was two years older than he was. He was nothing but a brat who didn't know his place: at the bottom of the heap. That was what an Osiris Red was and always would be. Hachiro had learned that early and well, thanks to his cousin.

_But before I duel him, I want to humiliate him even more._ Something to throw Juudai off of his game, to prove to him that he was _nothing_, no matter what everyone else had made of him.

He headed to his room, closing and locking the door behind himself once he got there. He flipped open his laptop and settled down in front of it, thinking a little as he did. The technology for what he wanted was pretty easy, since it was based off of what was used for duel disks. Ordering it would put a small dent in his personal savings, but he had more than enough to cover it, as well as the swift shipping to the island. If anyone asked…

_I'll just say it's a surprise for Halloween. That's all._ Hachiro smiled slowly to himself. The ideas were already pouring in, and his costume would make it look even better. Not to mention, the fact it _was_ Halloween, and Juudai was childish enough to want to throw a Halloween party, would definitely work in his favor.

He sent the order out, then something else occurred to him. _I want to make this as realistic as I can. I think I should go to the library._ His cousin had mentioned once that there were all kinds of books on duel spirits and how to summon them, and not in the way of a normal duel, in the library here. It would give him some ideas, he was certain of it.

Better than realistic, he would make it _real_. A real demon if he could manage it, if such things existed. Something that would take Yuuki Juudai completely out of this school and never let him back, something to let people show that if you were Red, then you were _worthless_.

He would never let that happen to him. He'd seen what had happened to his cousin once already. For that matter, if it came down to making deals with demons in order to get ahead in the dueling world, then he'd do that too. So long as he got what he wanted, he didn't care about anything else.

Oh, and as long as Yuuki Juudai got what he deserved.

* * *

She could sense a dark heart in the making. Normally this would have pleased her. Those with dark hearts were easily manipulated and used by her. There were several on this island, though she couldn't pinpoint them all. She couldn't even be certain if she'd be able to identify this one from such a distance. Her powers were so _weak_ right now.

Patience, she counseled herself. Soon Cobra would begin the next phase of the plan, placing the dis-belts on all of the students. She would have the energy she needed pouring back in, and she could rebuild herself. Then she would be with Juudai again…

That was something else. This new dark heart hated her beloved Juudai. She would have to watch for that alone. No harm was to be allowed to come to him, ever.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was to be no harm to come to him that Yubel herself didn't approve of, and inflict on him.

She would show them. She would show them all the glory of Juudai's love, and bring him back to her.

Perhaps this dark heart would help. She would have to watch, and wait. Yubel was very good at all of those. After all, she had been waiting for Juudai to return to her for a very, very long time.

**To Be Continued**

**Note:** Frankly, Yubel showing up at the end surprised me. I wasn't quite planning on it, but she popped up into my head and demanded a small part. We'll see how this goes.


	3. Research and Development

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** Research and Development  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 8,426  
**Chapter Word Count:** 2,848  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 3 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. Date-wise, it's late October, about four days before Halloween, 2006. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

"What kind of books did you say you wanted?" The librarian frowned some, her attention more on the computer at her fingertips than on Hachiro himself. That was exactly what he wanted, too, someone who would just answer his question and not give him any guff about what he was researching.

"How to get in touch with Duel Spirits. And a way to be able to see them if you can't already." There had to be some way to do it. His cousin had dropped a couple of hints, but he hadn't told him enough so he could figure it out on his own.

_The idiot also said that it was too dangerous. Shows what he knows, the quitter._ His cousin had dropped out of Duel Academia in his final year, after some kind of mysterious event. Hachiro didn't know all of the details, mainly because his cousin hadn't told him, or anyone else. Those few details had only involved a few mad ravings about 'Psycho Shocker' and 'Yuuki Juudai'. The idiot Osiris had probably tried something way over his head and his cousin had had to get him out of it, and gotten hurt in the process.

"Here you go." The librarian handed him a list of book titles and numbers. Most of them seemed to have something to do with what he was looking for. "You should find most of them over there." She gestured towards a part of the library that seemed appropriately dusty and unused. "Why did you say you were doing this, again?"

Hachiro conjured up his best smile. "I didn't. But it's a report that I have to do." A report would cover a lot of things, even if it took him more than one trip here to get what he needed.

He glanced through the list, then headed over towards that area she'd indicated. It wasn't quite dripping in cobwebs, since the staff kept everything cleaner than that, but still and all, he could tell the books weren't used all that often. He searched around, picking up books that were on the list, and one or two that seemed interesting but weren't on it.

_I'd better read them here._ If he checked them out, there was always the slim chance someone could want to look for them, and find out he had them. He'd rather not take the risk. This was going to be the best Halloween _trick_ that had ever been devised, and he wouldn't have it spoiled.

He'd brought a notebook and now he worked on copying down anything that seemed remotely interesting from the books as he paged through them. Partway through one of them, he decided it would be a very good idea if he knew exactly what he was trying to summon up. Once he thought about it, the decision was easy to make.

From an inside pocket of his jacket he pulled out his deck and fanned through it. Where, where, where…there! He set Guardian Baou's card on the table and looked at it thoughtfully for a moment or two. He'd won quite a few of his duels with this card. He traced a finger down the side and nodded. Guardian Baou would be perfect to help him.

He turned a few more pages, writing down a few phrases that looked as if they might be useful. Not everything in here was going to be something he could use. He pushed aside the books on communicating with spirits via Ouija boards altogether. That was kid stuff, who would even believe in _that_?

But there were so many other methods listed there. The Ouija board was in fact the least of them, the one that someone would probably use if they had no stomach for blood or sacrifice. _And it wouldn't work anyway. Duel Spirits, responding to something they sell in game stores?_

Hachiro searched through more and more books, keeping one finger on Guardian Baou as he did. Every now and then, an odd tingle would work through him, and he stopped to look at what he was reading a little more closely. Almost always, it was something that he was certain could help to a degree.

"Yamaguichi-san?" It was the librarian again. What was her name? Oh, right.

"Yes, Oonishi-san?" He liked to make nice with the people in charge. They generally deferred to him, which was just as it should be in his opinion. Except when it came to Juudai. _He_ had to do all of his assignments and keep his grades up, when that wanna-be dropout got away with sleeping through classes!

"The library's about to close for the evening. Did you want to check any of those out?" She had a cart near her, obviously ready to put back the ones he didn't take. He shook his head quickly and gathered up his papers and deck.

"No, I've got what I need." At least for now. He was fairly sure that he would have to come back to refresh his memory, but he knew which ones he'd need to look at for that. "Thank you." He smiled warmly at her before hurrying back to his dorm room, thoughts and plans still churning as they'd been since he'd made up his mind to do this.

He was going to summon Guardian Baou. He'd heard a few rumors about some people had Duel Monster spirits for friends or protectors or whatever, especially around here. Supposedly Juudai had one, and Manjoume, and there were all kinds of rumors about Johan flying around, especially since the epic opening duel against Juudai. His cousin had even studied duel spirits before dropping out. So, they had to exist. Just because Hachiro hadn't seen them didn't mean they didn't.

_And once I have Guardian Baou here, then we can scare the living daylights out of Juudai. Even if he has a duel spirit of his own, Guardian Baou is a powerful fiend monster. Juudai can't have seen anything like him before. Not a real one._ As far as he knew, no one else played that particular card here. They didn't care about it like he did, either. Sometimes, he'd kind of wondered if he _did_ have Baou as a guardian spirit, and just couldn't see him.

That would be about one of the best things that had happened to him, ever. He'd never actually tried to see spirits before, not since he'd come to the conclusion they did exist. His cousin's half-murmured words about that had convinced him. But if this really did it, perhaps he would know for certain. If Baou wasn't his guardian, maybe he could be persuaded to take up the position?

He settled down on his wide bed and sorted through the notes. What had looked to be the way to have the quickest results would definitely involve blood of some kind. His was most likely. He winced; it wasn't something he was going to anticipate doing, but to prove Juudai for the coward he was, he would do it.

_So, I'll need a sharp, clean knife, some chalk, a brazier, some incense…_ He drew up another list; most of this would be easy to come by for him. Combined with what he'd ordered earlier, his plan would go off without a hitch.

He could hardly wait to see Juudai's face, stark white with terror, as he faced something in public that couldn't be defeated in a duel and would in fact claim his soul. Or at least, that was what the brat would _think_ was going to happen. The entire school, including Johan Andersen, would laugh itself into hysteria at their golden boy being afraid of a few simple holograms. Most of them wouldn't see Baou, if he were there to be seen at all, but that would make it better, because they would see Juudai recoiling in terror from something that 'wasn't there at all'.

The more he thought this over, the more he liked the idea of it. It held everything that he'd ever wanted. He would, with luck, be able to talk to and see Guardian Baou shortly. He would show Juudai up for being a coward and deceiving the whole school.

It was going to be beautiful. So very beautiful.

* * *

As Juudai had predicted, Tome-san was more than happy to accept the task of making special Halloween food for Juudai's party. Johan could tell the portly woman very much liked Juudai, and wasn't surprised. Juudai just made people like him by existing.

_He's got a lot of charisma._ Pegasus had spoken of Juudai like that, mentioning him frequently as a 'miracle-boy' who could do almost anything, up to and including saving the world. Johan hadn't seen that part of Juudai yet, but he kind of hoped that he would. Pegasus's story about the Light of Ruin and the Genex tournament the previous year had intrigued Johan, and he wished he'd been able to see some of it.

"So, anything else that we've got to do?" Juudai asked, turning towards Johan as Tome-san started to speak with her assistants about their new project. Johan considered, then a spark of a thought hit.

"You said we could buy some new cards while we're here?" Though his deck was complete save for Rainbow Dragon, he'd always liked getting new cards. Sometimes Pegasus liked to slip things that he could use into the general run of cards, just to see if Johan could find them.

"Oh, right!" Juudai hurried over to the single cards on display, Johan ambling along after him. He preferred packs, but seeing what was available otherwise was interesting too. Together they bent over the case, peering at what Tome-san had available.

"I don't really see anything that I can use there," Johan murmured thoughtfully. He liked to keep to a very specific theme in his deck. He was sort of considering asking Pegasus about the chances of some kind of a new card, though. His deck usually responded to him fairly quickly, but there could be times when he'd need something that they couldn't provide. He didn't like to play on his friendship with Pegasus, however. It would probably stay as just an idea in his mind.

Juudai stared more intently at one of the cards on display there. "Tome-san," he lifted his voice some, and she hurried right over. "Can I see that one there?" He gestured at the one he was looking at. She pulled it out and handed it over, as Johan leaned over to see what it was.

"Alchemy Cycle?" That was a pretty good card. The effect was a little strange, reducing the attack of one's own monsters to zero, and being able to draw a card when one of the monsters affected by that effect was put into the graveyard. It wouldn't work with _his_ deck, but he could see how it would fit with Juudai.

"Daitoukuji-sensei was always talking about alchemy and being able to change people," Juudai said, digging some money out of his pocket. "You never know when something like this could come in handy, right?"

"Right!" Johan agreed, checking out a couple of other cards. Really, nothing he could use. But he picked up a half dozen packs anyway. Looking through them would kill a bit of time and there was supposed to be a new shipment coming in soon as well, or so he'd heard from gossip. What could be in that, no one knew.

On the way out, Johan decided it would probably be just a bit cramped back in Juudai's dorm, if Kenzan and Shou were still there. Besides, he hadn't yet done this, and he wanted to. "Why don't we go to my room and look through these?" he suggested. "We could watch a movie or something, too. I've got a lot of DVDs I brought from home."

Juudai glanced at him, tilting his head a bit as he stared down at his new card. "Sure. I don't think I've really been inside Obelisk Blue before. Not for more than a few minutes, anyway."

"Why not?" Johan turned his steps towards the highest dorm. He'd asked Juudai once a couple of days earlier why he stayed in the Red dorm, when his talents made him clearly suitable for Blue. Juudai's reply had been simple: he was happy where he was.

"No one's ever invited me there!" Juudai replied, laughing a bit, one hand behind his head. "I stayed in Ra overnight once, but Obelisk…no one. I was in it once, for a few minutes, but I was a little busy trying to get someone else out of there."

"Get someone out of there?" Johan repeated, not sure if he'd heard that right. Juudai nodded quickly, though, and Johan wanted to know more. Hearing the story of how Rei had first come to Duel Academia was fascinating enough to keep him occupied until they were inside Obelisk Blue.

Almost as soon as they entered, someone caught Johan's attention, probably without even meaning to. Jim Cook was seated in the main room, his crocodile by his feet, and with him was Tenjoin Asuka. The two of them were talking about something; they were a bit too low for him to really hear them, but as soon as Juudai saw them, he headed right over.

"Hey, guys!" Juudai waved cheerfully. "I hope you're going to come to my Halloween party!"

"Wouldn't miss it!" Jim replied easily. "I hear you're going to have some duels? Can't wait to see what you've got in mind for us."

"Can't tell you." Juudai replied, grinning slightly. "It might scare you so much that you're not going to want to be there for it."

Asuka smiled softly at that. "It should be interesting. Do you know who will be dueling yet?"

"Kenzan said that he knows someone who knows someone, and I probably will too, and maybe you will, Johan?" Juudai peered over at his friend, who nodded amiably enough. It wasn't as if dueling were some kind of hardship for him, after all. "And we can get a couple of others. I want three, if we can manage it."

Jim glanced over at Asuka, and something silent appeared to pass between them. Asuka turned her attention towards Juudai. "I'll duel. How are you going to decide who duels who?"

"Uh…I hadn't thought about that, really." Juudai scratched his head, then grinned. "I know! We'll have a random drawing. So no knows who they're going to duel before it happens. It'll be a lot more exciting like that."

Asuka nodded a little as Juudai waved farewell and he and Johan started towards the stairs that led up to the dorm rooms themselves.

"Is Asuka any good?" Johan wondered. He supposed that she had to be; even though girls went into Obelisk Blue by default, if they didn't keep their grades up, they were as subject to expulsion as anyone else. If not more so, since there was no lower dorm for them to be demoted to.

"Oh, yeah!" Juudai's eyes lit up in sudden memory. "She's got this one really awesome combo she uses. It's great to see! Doesn't feel all that good to get hit with, though." He opened his mouth, then closed it, grinning. "But I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you end up dueling her, it should be a surprise, right?"

Johan laughed a bit, leaning over to open the door to his room. "All right. Maybe I'll see it, even if I'm not dueling her." Getting tips on someone who might be his opponent wasn't something Johan was interested in. It would be an unfair advantage, especially since Asuka, or anyone else he dueled around here, wouldn't be able to do the same for him. He'd only played one duel here as of yet, and his deck had a lot more secrets to it than he'd revealed as of yet.

Once they were settled in, Johan tossed half of the card packs to Juudai and opened up one of the ones he'd kept for himself. Part of his attention was on the cards, the rest was trying to decide not just which movie to watch, but which strategy he was going to use when the duel came around. _A dueling Halloween party. Trust Juudai to come up with that._ He might've only known the other for less than two weeks, but this truly did not surprise him.

He stopped at one particular card he was looking through, and considered it. Again, not something he could use for his deck, but for Juudai's… "Here, you could probably use this, since you've got all those fusion monsters in your deck."

Juudai picked it up, reading the text, and nodded. "Yeah, that could come in handy." He tucked _Spiritual Fusion_ off to the side and stretched out on the comfortable Obelisk Blue bed. Johan smiled to himself; he could hardly wait for Halloween. Maybe, if he were lucky, he and Juudai would get to duel one another again.

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Both Alchemy Cycle and Spiritual Fusion are cards Juudai will later use in his duel against Yubel that ends in their fusion. And one of those will be used later on in this story.


	4. First Encounters

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** First Encounters  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 11,097  
**Chapter Word Count:** 2,671  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 4 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. We move forward now, so it's two days before Halloween, 2006. Then we'll move ahead a bit more, to the night of Halloween itself. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

Guardian Baou was bored. To be honest, bored didn't even begin to cover what he was. There was so very little to _do_ around Dark World. Working for Brron wasn't nearly as much fun as it had been just a few months ago. Kill humans or kill monsters, it was all the same. None of them put up a good fight, and Brron was too busy focusing on some plan he called 'Super Fusion' to really care much about the decent splattering of blood.

So, it was perhaps not a surprise at all that Baou found himself wandering the vast wastelands, looking for something that would take his mind off of everything for as long as possible.

_I should kill Brron._ Now, that would liven everything up around there! There would be struggles for power, perhaps even something that he himself could take advantage of. After all, he grew more powerful with every kill that he made. The more slaughter the better, in his opinion.

Unfortunately, right now he wasn't strong enough to take on Brron, Brrow, Sillva, Goldd, and all the rest. The entire Dark World brigade was loyal to him, and Baou knew that he didn't have the clout, or the power, to convert them to his side just yet. But he would. He had no doubts about that. He looked forward to the day when he would be able to see the entire world kneeling before him. Brron could call himself Supreme King all that he wanted. Baou knew his days were numbered.

Seeing a stream trickling down from a rock formation ahead, he wandered over to have a drink. A pool had formed in a depression there and he idly glanced into it. Some monsters had visions whenever they did this, though he himself had never had it happen. There were even rumors that those who had a connection to humans could see their partners. Actually crossing between worlds was next to impossible, especially for those of extremely high level, so most didn't even try. But somehow, they always knew that they _did_ have a human partner or friend out there somewhere.

_I wonder what mine is doing._ Baou himself knew that there was some human, somewhere in that world, who played his card and who loved it deeply. He'd always been a little curious about such a person. So now, he looked curiously into the water and wondered what it would be like to see them.

The water's surface clouded even as he thought and looked, and then cleared suddenly. Reflected back up to him wasn't his own face, but that of a human. Baou hadn't seen too many humans who weren't terrified of him, but this one seemed more…eager than anything else. Dark hair, dark eyes, wearing a blue uniform that didn't match anything that he himself knew of, but with an eager, greedy gleam to his eyes. Baou was certain right away that he liked him. They were two of a kind, and the damage that they could create together would be legendary.

If only they could just _be_ together. Even with this small bit of a look, Baou wanted to stand beside this boy and watch him grow, guide him in the ways of slaughter and mayhem.

_Guardian Baou._ Even as the words, faint and wispy as they were, echoed in his mind, he could see the human's lips forming his name. He'd never tried to cross the barrier between worlds himself. He'd had too much to do working for Brron. Now he started to think a bit differently. _Guardian Baou, come to me. Come now!_

In the space between one heartbeat and the next, everything around Baou _shifted_. He didn't put up a fight; he had wanted something to happen, and now it was. Nothing needed to be sacrificed for _his_ summoning.

Shadows surrounded him, and he pressed forward, going by instinct. His hands touched something that gave way after only a bit of effort, and then he stood in a room that was much unlike anything that he'd ever seen before. Runes and diagrams had been carved into the stone of the floor, and etched into the walls as well. Before him was that same person that he'd seen before, only now with a wild grin on his face. He glanced down at himself; he was a bit different. He was used to being solid, not a spirit. But certain adjustments obviously had to be made to cross worlds. It wasn't that difficult. He would still be able to affect it in certain ways, starting with this boy right here.

"Guardian Baou." Now his name was being spoke in terms that verged on awe. Baou liked the way that it sounded. _I could get used to it._ He _wanted_ to get used to it. "I'm Yamaguchi Hachiro."

He was about to say more when Baou shook his head a touch. He knew this boy's name. He didn't know everything about him, but he knew, nonetheless. "You don't have the talent," he said thoughtfully. If Hachiro _had_ possessed it, or had dared to cultivate their bond naturally, Baou would have already known it. "Why did you call me, then?"

"There's something that I think we can do together." Hachiro spoke eagerly, quickly, detailing out his plans. A boy who claimed praise and acclaim that weren't rightfully his. A party held by that boy, that Hachiro wished to destroy, exposing him for the false fighter that he was. The lust for power and acclaim, and to avenge insults levied against one's own kin.

Baou approved. He very much approved. "I have little power here," he observed, somewhat annoyed by that fact. "But I don't think I'll need it."

"No, I can manage everything else. I wanted your help to make him look stupid in front of everyone. Talk to him, make fun of him. Let him know how ridiculous he is. I don't think anyone else could see you, maybe one or two people, but most of them are going to think he's crazy." Hachiro smiled, and Baou found that he was returning it. He was indeed a partner. Perhaps he should have found his way into the human world sooner, a kindred soul. Maybe even a protégé, if everything he had read in those excited eyes so far was true.

"I can do that." He could do so much more, as well. He ran one hand along the edge of his blade, thinking of what it would be like if he were fully in this world, or if this 'Juudai' person were fully in his. The chance had finally come to utterly destroy someone, even if they weren't truly worth his efforts, and to do it for _his_ purposes, not for Brron's.

Hachiro nodded, binding the injury on his arm. It seemed the ritual that had been necessary to call him into this world had involved a certain amount of sacrifice, though obviously not that of a life. The dark power around here was incredibly high, more than Baou would have expected. He glanced around a bit more. "What is this place?"

"It's usually called the Abandoned Dorm. No one's really supposed to be here, but when I started researching how to summon you, I found some notes from some guy who mentioned this place was really good for contacting Duel Spirits." Hachiro shrugged a touch, putting away the tools he'd been using. "It worked."

So it had. So it had indeed. Baou watched as the other finished, then followed him out of the room, up stairs and through corridors dim and dusty with disuse. It reminded him somewhat of Brron's castle and he turned his lip up a bit. If these were the best accommodations this world had to offer, then he was going to rethink some of this entire bargain.

"No one lives here now," Hachiro said, crossing through thick forests and going along a path so overgrown it was obvious that hardly anyone ever used it. "It was shut down years ago, and all of the Obelisk Blues who used to live there were moved out." He brushed at his jacket a little, not looking any more thrilled to have the dust there than Baou himself was at it existing in the first place.

Baou nodded as his new partner told him other facts of this world, noticing something even more interesting as they walked. This world was _bright_. Brilliant light shone overhead, and after some time walking, he realized that the source of that light had moved. If he hadn't been paying attention, he might not have noticed at all.

_Fascinating._ He wondered if that were the 'sun' that he'd read of in old books of the time before the comet. If there were ill effects to be had from its presence, he wasn't suffering from them right now. That was all to the good. He didn't think that anything here could really hurt him, certainly not like back in Dark World. From what Hachiro spoke of so casually, people didn't even die when they lost a duel. That wasn't all that interesting, but it did give the opportunity for defeating someone and being able to gloat over that fact to their face. When they died right after, that was a little difficult to accomplish.

He smiled. Yes. He could _definitely_ get used to this.

* * *

Johan had seen a lot of amazing events in his life, most of them before he'd ever set foot on this island, but the speed and skill with which this party had been put together was still startling beyond much else. The duels wouldn't start until after sunset, for maximum benefit of shadows and moonlight both, but ever since an hour or so after classes had let out, people have been gravitating towards the chosen area of the beach.

"This is looking _great_!" Juudai declared, trying to look in every direction at the same time and only managing one or two at the time at the most. "We've got to get some of what Tome-san's serving! Are you going to be wearing a costume?"

"No, I couldn't really find anything that I wanted," Johan replied. It was true; he'd spent most of his free time the last few days trying to find something that he thought would really work, but nothing had quite clicked in his mind. Juudai appeared to have had the same problem, since he wore the usual Osiris Red uniform.

Other people didn't have that same problem, as people in various costumes were wandering around everywhere. Most of them resembled some Duel Monster or other, and as far as Johan could tell, a lot of them were extraordinarily hot. He didn't regret not having found something.

"So, when are we going to get to the dueling?" Manjoume, wearing only his usual black outfit, stood with arms folded over his chest. "I'm not going to stand out here forever."

Juudai grinned at him easily. "Just a little while. Have you tried any of Tome-san's cider yet? I heard Fubuki-san raving about it." It had been hard to miss Fubuki's ravings, given that he appeared to play for an audience even when he was just praising the delights of a delicious drink.

Manjoume snorted some and headed off, grumbling under his breath. Johan watched him for a moment, then turned his attention back to Juudai. "So, what else is going on tonight?"

"Well, there's some music over there," Juudai said, gesturing to where a couple of Ra students had set up some equipment. Harmonic strains and melodies floated through the air, but Johan tried not to listen too much. He was good with Japanese, but if he started to pay attention to too much at the same time, the mental strain would get to him. He had to duel later, after all.

He also noticed that some people were dancing there, and he peered a little more closely. He couldn't tell if the people were anyone that he knew, which he doubted they were. He hadn't been there long enough.

Juudai pointed out a few other areas, but the biggest and most cleared space was for the upcoming duels. This wasn't going to be a tournament, but more something like their own exhibition duel. Whoever won, won, and whoever lost lost. Johan glanced down at the band on his wrist, and looked around again. There had been an odd feeling about it ever since Professor Cobra had put it on their arms, one that hadn't faded in the days since then.

But, nothing had really happened. It was just supposed to take their information when they dueled or something. They wore them at West School, and he hadn't heard of anything unusual happening _there_.

"Hey!" Johan turned at the sound of Juudai's voice and saw where the other was looking. Amon Garam stood beside one of the tables, a cup of cider in one hand and a plate of food in the other, and he had whirled the moment that Juudai called out. For a single moment, Johan caught an odd look on the other's face. It was gone in the next second, so swiftly that Johan doubted he'd really seen it. _He was probably just startled. Juudai has that effect on people._

"Hello." Amon bent his head slightly as they both ambled over. "This is very well done."

Juudai grinned cheerfully at the champion of East School. "Thanks! Hope you're having fun. Are you going to be dueling?" He rubbed the back of his head. "I kind of lost track of the sheet with everyone's name on it, but Fubuki-san knows who'll be doing it!"

Amon shook his head. "No, I thought that I would just watch now." He glanced over behind them both for a moment, then politely excused himself, vanishing into the shadows as swiftly as a veritable ninja. Johan curiously looked behind them now.

"Oh! Hi!" Jim and Asuka were coming up there now. Juudai waved once he saw them, his eyes dancing with joy. Johan smiled at that; it was so good to see Juudai happy. "What's up, guys?"

Jim nodded a greeting back at Johan. "Haven't seen a party like this in a while. Looking forward to seeing the duels, especially Tomorrow Girl." The look he shot towards Asuka was a slightly proud one. Karen waved her clawed feet a little and growled a bit. "Karen says she wants to see everyone!"

Juudai tugged out his PDA and checked the time, then looked towards the sky before he began to look around some more. The sun was completely beneath the horizon, and the first starts were twinkling brilliantly overhead. "Fubuki-san! It's time to get things going!"

At first, no answer at all came. Then, a sudden blaze of brilliant light encircled a figure on a stage that Johan had missed before, and there was Fubuki, dressed in a sleek, slightly ruffled suit. "Attention, everyone!" he called into a microphone, and his enhanced voice brought all of the partying teenagers' attention turned towards him. "It's time for the Halloween Party duels! Let's see who's going to be first!"

Also on the stage was a stand, with several scraps of paper inside. Fubuki marched over to it and dug his hand around inside for a minute or so before he pulled out one and read the name on it. "Our first duelist is Johan Andersen, from North School!"

Light flared around Johan as another spotlight (where was that coming from, anyway?) focused on him. Johan grinned and waved, quite looking forward to this. Fubuki was already searching for the next name, for the person who would be his opponent in this holiday duel.

"Oh, man. This is going to be good. Johan, I hope you're ready for this!" Fubuki declared. Johan grinned; he hoped that he was too. "Because defending the honor of Duel Academia tonight is going to be none other than my little sister, Tenjoin Asuka!"

**To Be Continued**


	5. Above and Beyond

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** Above and Beyond  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 13,860  
**Chapter Word Count:** 2,763  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 5 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. This picks up right where the last chapter left off. Also, I use the anime effects for cards, in case anyone was wondering. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

Juudai practically jumped out of his skin at the announcement of the two names. "Oh, yeah! This is gonna be great!" He motioned Johan quickly towards the stage where the duels would be held. "I can't wait to see what else you've got in that deck of yours." He paused for a moment. "Are you _sure_ you don't have Rainbow Dragon hiding in there?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Johan laughed a little; there were quite a few strategies hiding in his deck, after all. He looked forward to seeing what Asuka had in hers so he could figure out how to beat them. There was no thrill quite like winning a rough duel.

As word spread about who was going to be dueling, more and more people, even ones who hadn't really been that interested in partying, came to join the crowd. Professor Cobra stood there, arms folded across his chest, watching silently. Rei was already there, of course, dressed up in a deep red princess's outfit, and torn between trying to catch Juudai's eye and talking to one of her new friends, a fellow first year Ra student.

Five minutes after the announcement was made, Johan and Asuka stood a few feet apart, both of them with duels disks at the ready. Neither wore anything like a costume, though Fubuki had certainly tried to get Asuka to wear anything other than her normal uniform. That would be another story, however. Now, as their duel disks activated and the life point meters ratcheted up to four thousand, both of them shouted that one word that meant everything to them.

"_Duel_!"

"I summon Topaz Tiger!" Johan declared, taking the first turn. The glistening gem appeared before him for a moment before bursting outward into the bold tiger, who roared his defiance at the world. "Then I place one card face-down and end my turn."

Asuka nodded quickly, drawing her card. This was going to be good. "I summon Cyber TuTu! And since Topaz Tiger has higher attack points than she does, she can attack you directly!"

The lovely dancer spun across the field, leaping over Topaz Tiger, and slammed a leg into Johan's side. He gasped some; you'd sometimes think even the cards that didn't have spirits actively attached to them were real! Asuka set a face-down card of her own and ended her turn.

"Whoa, she's good!" The crowd whispered among itself; getting a thousand points of damage on Johan on her first turn was not bad at all. But the duel had yet to be played out completely.

Johan drew his card and prepared for what was to come next. A half dozen plans or more skimmed through his mind, and he decided quickly. "Topaz Tiger, attack Cyber TuTu!" This would take out a thousand of Asuka's life points as well, with Topaz Tiger's effect.

But Asuka, apparently, had other plans. "I activate Doble Passe! The attack on my monster becomes an attack on me!" She grunted, falling back a few steps as Topaz Tiger overshot Cyber TuTu and landed on her instead, dropping her down by sixteen hundred instead. But she still wasn't done. "And because of that, Cyber TuTu can attack you directly again!"

Once again the ballerina crossed the field to attack Johan, dropping his life points by another thousand. _Two thousand gone, and it's just my second turn. She's good._ Johan couldn't help but smile. This was going to be a _fun_ duel.

"I summon Emerald Turtle in defense mode, and set one card face-down," Johan declared, ending his turn. Both of those were going to come in very hand in the near future, he suspected. As long as he could stop Cyber TuTu.

"Hey, Johan!" Juudai shouted from the sidelines, and the North School champion turned to look at him. "That was what I was telling you about! That special move of hers! Isn't it great?"

Johan grinned and waved at him some. "Sure is! Thanks for not telling me!" He wouldn't have wanted to be spoiled for that, he was certain!

Over on her side of the field, Asuka sorted through her hand, and tried not to listen too much. To hear her skills being praised sent a light flush of heat all through her. "I draw!" She was going to win this duel, though she would have preferred doing so without direct attacks by Cyber TuTu. Which was why she played what she did next. "And I activate Fusion Gate! Now fusion monsters don't need Fusion in order to summoned."

Those who had seen her duel before began to murmur more amongst themselves, as she pulled out two more cards from her hand: Blade Skater and Etoile Cyber. "By removing these two cards from the game, because of the effect of Fusion Gate, I Special Summon Cyber Blader!"

She smiled as the beautiful dancer spun into existence beside Cyber TuTu. "Cyber Blader's effect changes according to how many monsters my opponent has. Since you've got two monsters, then her attack is doubled, from twenty-one hundred to four thousand and two hundred!"

Johan took that in, then smiled slowly. "All right. That's a pretty cool effect. Nothing I've got can top that naturally." His smile didn't mean he was giving up for a moment, however. "So, what does she do when I've got _three_ monsters?" Asuka blinked slightly as he gestured towards one of his face-downs. "I activate Induced Summon! When a monster is Special Summoned, then we can each Special Summon one level four or lower monster from our hands."

Asuka glanced down at her cards briefly, somewhat amused. He'd dodged that one pretty well, but Cyber Blader's effect with three monsters was even more devastating than the effect with just two. "In that case, I Special Summon Cyber Gymnatics!" That would make this attack all the more fearsome in the end, she decided.

"And I Special Summon Amber Mammoth!" Johan declared, the great beast shimmering into existence once it had burst forth from the amber gem. "Now, bring it on!"

"As you wish! Cyber Blader, attack Amber Mammoth!" Asuka declared. Her favorite monster spun towards Johan's newly arrived Gem Beast, destroying it with a single kick. Johan's eyes widened a little when he didn't see an amber gem form, however, and Asuka explained, "When you have three monsters on the field, then Cyber Blader negates all spells, traps, and monster effects."

"Not bad at all." Johan knew he could get Amber Mammoth back if he really needed to. He had Monster Reincarnation in his deck, after all. But it had been a slight surprise. "What else have you got?" Asuka wasn't even close to being done with her attack. "Cyber Gymnatics! Attack Emerald Turtle!" Neither Cyber Gymnatics nor Cyber TuTu could defeat Topaz Tiger, but she could at least get one more of his monsters off of the field. Sure, it would drop down Cyber Blader's effect, but she was still confident that she could win. _I could use Cyber Gymnatics' special effect, too. But I don't think I will._ Sure, that would destroy Topaz Tiger, but it would also mean that when he summoned a monster on his next turn, Cyber Blader would just have the effect of not being destroyed in battle. In all honesty, it was so much in her favor, that it didn't make a difference.

With Johan now only having two monsters, Cyber Blader's second effect was now in place, which meant when Cyber Gymnatics destroyed Emerald Turtle, the emerald gem took its proper place in the spell and trap zone. And now, her last attack was declared: Cyber TuTu, attacking Johan directly one last time, bringing his life points down to a meager four hundred.

"Whoa! Go Asuka!" Fubuki cheered in delight from his place on the side stage, Manjoume cheering just a moment behind him.

"You can do it, Tenjoin-kun!" The black clad Osiris shouted. "Beat him down!" When it came to loyalty to one's heart, no one had anything on Manjoume Jun.

"Turn end." Asuka declared, trying not to blush at those supportive words. It didn't help at all that she could see Jim from where she stood, and his warm smile encouraged her to do her best even more. She glanced down at the last card in her hand: Holy Life Barrier. If she'd had one other, she would have set that to protect her life points, since she didn't doubt for a moment that Johan was going to attack Cyber TuTu or Cyber Gymnatics with Topaz Tiger. But since the cost of that protection was to discard a card, she couldn't, and she wasn't going to try a useless bluff. Not against someone of Johan's caliber.

Johan staggered some from those strikes, but he hadn't lost an inch of his will to fight. He straightened up and glanced at Topaz Tiger. "You ready for this?"

**I always am, Johan!** The fierce beast reminded him. Johan nodded; his family was always ready to fight by his side. He looked forward to the day when Rainbow Dragon would join them and wondered who would be the first person to face it in battle. They would have to be strong, and capable of defeating him, to give him that thrill that he was having now.

_I hope it's Juudai._ He drew his next card and knew that no matter who might be that opponent then, it was time to deal with his opponent of _now_.

"You're a really great duelist, but this duel's about to end!" Johan declared. "I summon Sapphire Pegasus and activate his special effect! Sapphire Calling!" He sorted quickly through his deck and pulled out just the right card for this moment. "I set Ruby Carbuncle into my spell and trap zone, and activate Ruby's effect as well: Ruby Happiness! All Gem Beasts there are Special Summoned to the field!"

Asuka's eyes widened as she realized what he was doing: going above and beyond the limits of Cyber Blader's effect. One monster, two, or three, and she could deal with it in any fashion. But _four_, and there were no effects for her to apply at all! Sapphire Pegasus, Ruby Carbuncle, Topaz Tiger, and Emerald Turtle now were a gem-studded trap that she couldn't get out of.

"Trap activate! Gem Split!" Johan pointed to the trap he'd laid down on his previous turn. "The targeted monster's attack points decrease by half, and if the monster is destroyed, then you can draw a card."

Asuka's stomach sank almost at once. If she'd set out Holy Life Barrier, then she _would_ have had the card to discard now, since any of her monsters could be destroyed. But there was nothing to do for it now. That was how the cards fell.

"I target Cyber Blader! Sapphire Pegasus, attack! Sapphire Horn!" At Johan's command, the winged unicorn took off and shot the attack straight towards Cyber Blader, destroying her most powerful monster and delivering nine hundred and fifty points of damage to her. "Topaz Tiger! Attack Cyber Gymnatics!"

More life points fell from her gauge as Topaz Tiger swiped and destroyed her second monster. Asuka fell back, gasping a little. She was used to duels that turned around in the flash of an eye, but not quite this quickly, not unless she was dueling Juudai.

_They really are so much alike._ She caught her breath some, then glanced over at his side of the field. He had just Emerald Turtle and Ruby Carbuncle that hadn't attacked yet, and she just had Cyber TuTu, whose attack points were stronger than both of those. _Maybe I do have a chance._

Then Johan smiled, and it was a smile of pure victory. "I equip Gem Release onto Emerald Turtle, raising his attack points by eight hundred!" He pointed across the field to Cyber TuTu. "Emerald Turtle, attack Cyber TuTu!"

And with that, the last barrier against damage to her life points was gone, and she only had fifty life points left: and there was still one more attack to come.

"Ready?" Johan asked, that mad grin tugging at his lips. Asuka grinned right back at him. Even if she had used Cyber Gymnatics' effect, she realized, it wouldn't have made any difference. Ruby Carbuncle's special effect would have brought Topaz Tiger back along with everyone else in Johan's spell and trap zone. She'd lost fairly.

"Ready!"

"Ruby Flash!" Johan declared Ruby Carbuncle's attack, and the smallest of the Gem Beasts leaped overhead in a somersault, a beam of crimson light shooting forth from her mouth to knock those last life points out. Asuka staggered some, then slowly drew herself back up, smiling.

"That was great." She hadn't enjoyed a duel like that in a while. "I can see why Pegasus considers you one of the best." She hadn't forgotten what Edo had told them on the day that the transfer students had arrived.

Johan grinned back at her as he gathered up his deck. "Thanks. You're really good too. Maybe sometime we can duel again?"

"I look forward to it." Asuka smiled as she headed off of the stage, to where Jim was waiting for with a cup of cider. She could also see Fubuki and Manjoume watching, the one looking thrilled and eager, the other with an almost wistful gleam to his eyes. She accepted the cider with a polite nod, nothing more, and turned to see who else was going to get picked to duel tonight.

"Okay, in five minutes, I pick the next pair!" Fubuki declared, patting Manjoume on the shoulder reassuringly. He'd seen the look in his eyes when Asuka had went over to Jim, after all. "So, everyone get ready, because it could be you!"

As soon as Johan came off of the stage, Juudai was there, grinning wildly. "That was awesome! She had you on the ropes and then you turned it all around in just one turn!"

"It's all thanks to the Gem Beasts," Johan said, patting his deck a little. Ruby appeared on his shoulder, and he reached up to stroke her head. "I couldn't do anything without them."

Juudai just grinned some as he settled back, looking around. There were going to be at least two other duels tonight, and he could hardly wait to see who they were going to be between.

Some distance back from the beach, Hachiro and Guardian Baou stood, watching all of the goings on. Hachiro hadn't even bothered to get refreshments. He was waiting for his name to turn up for the duels. He _wanted_ it to be against Juudai. There was no promise that it would be, but that was what he wanted.

"Interesting duelists," Baou said softly, his arms folded across his chest. "Some of them would do well in my world." And some of them he would have quite enjoyed killing himself. He had watched as many duels as he could since arriving in this world, and the fact that they didn't result in death was fascinating no matter how many times he saw it.

"Some of them, anyway." Hachiro muttered. He glared over towards Fubuki. _Give the next names, you idiot!_ How someone like that survived as an Obelisk Blue completely baffled him.

Baou smirked a bit, seeing Hachiro's glare. _Impatient. He wants his revenge now._ He could relate.

Up on the stage, Fubuki cleared his throat and began to dig into the pile of names once more. He pulled out the first one and read it a couple of times before, "Everyone, I am pleased to announce that the next name I draw out of this pile will get to duel our very own Genex Champion, the phoenix who rose up from the depths of Hell, the youngest, greatest, and in my not very humble opinion best looking of his entire family…Manjoume _Thunder_!"

Manjoume turned bright red almost from the moment that Fubuki had stated 'Genex Champion', and with every word thereafter, he tried to stammer out 'shishou', only to have his throat close up in the end. Then he straightened up and looked around with his best cool and unaffected look.

"So, who's my opponent?" He _did_ so hope it was Juudai. Being able to beat him and choosing not to wasn't quite the same as actually doing so.

Fubuki reached in again and swirled around before he picked out the next name. This time he blinked a few more times, and grinned. "I hope you're all ready for this. I know _I_ am. Because the person dueling Manjoume…is _me_!"

**To Be Continued**


	6. Ojama Rebellion

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** Ojama Rebellion  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 16,473  
**Chapter Word Count:** 2,613  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 6 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. This picks up right where the last chapter left off. Also, I use the anime effects for cards, in case anyone was wondering. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

Murmurs of anticipation swept through the crowd as Manjoume and Fubuki prepared for their duel. Manjoume wished he could get his hands around the throat of whoever had decreed their names came up against one another. Of all the people that he would have wanted to duel, Fubuki was _not_ on the list. For one thing, that was _Shishou_, his wise teacher in the ways of attracting Asuka.

For another, if he beat Fubuki, Asuka might not want to go out with him, ever.

On the other hand, winning might make her look more favorably on him.

Romance was hard.

"Ready to go?" Fubuki asked, activating his duel disk once he was ready. Manjoume nodded quickly; one way or the other, he wanted this to be done. He took a quick look around, and was not at all ashamed to blush when he saw Asuka watching.

_She's looking this way. She really is!_ Sure, that guy Jim was beside her, and they'd been together a lot of the night, but she was such a kind person, she was probably just showing him around, now that he thought about it. She was probably the sweetest person ever to exist…

"Manjoume no aniki!" Ojama Yellow squealed. "Aren't you going to take the first turn?"

Huh? What? Oh, right! He snapped himself back to what was going on. Fubuki had a very knowing grin on his face, and Manjoume's cheeks burned even brighter. "My turn!" He wanted people to be focusing on the dueling, not on his love life! "I summon Armed Dragon Level Three, and set two face-down cards. Turn end."

"All right! My turn!" Fubuki drew with a flourish, glancing at the card he'd pulled, then at the ones in his hand. "I summon Hound Dragon in attack mode! Hound Dragon, attack Armed Dragon Level Three!"

Manjoume smirked slightly; he'd been expecting that. That was what one of his face-down cards was there for. His life points took a five hundred point dip, but he wasn't that concerned. A minor setback.

"And now, I play Cyclone, to destroy one of your face-downs!" Okay, now that could be a little more difficult, if Fubuki chose the wrong one. Or the right one. Or perhaps not. "That one!" Fubuki pointed to the one on the right, and Grave hole of Revival flipped up enough to display what it was before vanishing altogether.

"Not bad. But I don't think I want to see the end of my Armed Dragons just yet, Shishou. Activate, trap! Call of the Living Dead! Armed Dragon Level Three, come back!" The remaining trap card twirled around, and his small dragon reappeared on the field.

Fubuki grinned at him. "Not bad yourself. I place one card face-down and end my turn."

As soon as it was his Standby Phase, Manjoume moved to trade in the dragon he'd just revived. "I send Armed Dragon Level Three to the graveyard to Special Summon Armed Dragon Level Five!" The more powerful version roared its way onto the field, glaring across it at Fubuki's Hound Dragon.

He was quite glad of which card he'd drawn now, since that gave him the chance to do some serious damage to Fubuki. He cast another quick glance over at Asuka, before he got back to work. _She's still watching. This is great._

"I discard Mefist the Infernal General to activate Armed Dragon Level Five's effect, destroying one of your monsters with an attack equal or lower to his! And since he has an attack of eighteen hundred, that means Hound Dragon is gone! Go, Genocide Blaster!"

A crisscross of light shot across the field, slicing into Hound Dragon briefly before it exploded. Manjoume hmphed proudly to himself, before ordering the next attack. "Armed Dragon Level Five, attack directly!" Asuka was watching, Asuka was watching…

"Not so fast!" Manjoume was not at all surprised that Fubuki wasn't going to go down easily. "Trap, activate! Negate Attack!" The powerful blow that would have cut his life points more than in half was canceled in its tracks. Manjoume checked over his cards quickly; there were many options he had. But he couldn't stand to make Fubuki look bad, not right now.

"Turn end." He declared, and waited to see what his teacher had next in mind for him.

Fubuki drew his own card and placed it on the duel disk, that familiar cocky grin all over his face. "I summon Red Eyes Black Chick, then sacrifice Red Eyes Black Chick to summon Red Eyes Black Dragon!" There were squeals of delight from many of the girls as the adorable hatchling appeared, then grew up into the far more powerful, and much less squee-able, dragon.

Manjoume was proud to notice that Asuka was _not_ one of those squealing as well. She had better sense than that.

"Looks like I can't attack this turn," Fubuki said, indicating their monsters. Both Armed Dragon Level Five and Red Eyes Black Dragon had the same attack points. It would have only been a mutual destruction. "So, I'll set this card face-down and end my turn. What've you got for me?"

There was no answer right away, as Manjoume drew his card. He smirked when he saw what it was. His deck wanted him to win this. At least the Ojamas weren't showing up. He preferred a dragon versus dragon fight when it came to Fubuki. "What I've got for you is this! I play Level Up! I can Special Summon Armed Dragon Level Seven, ignoring the summoning requirements!" Once again his dragon grew, now appearing as one of the most powerful in the game, with four hundred more attack points, and a much more intense effect.

_Not that I'm going to need that right now._ He had another card in his hand that he was going to play. "I also Normal Summon Masked Dragon!" That would be useful; he didn't have too many dragon-type monsters that would qualify for the effect, but there were some. They'd be useful for defense, if nothing else. Now, for the next phase.

"Armed Dragon Level Seven, attack Red Eyes Black Dragon!" The smaller version might've had equal attack strength, but the new and improved outweighed Red Eyes Black Dragon by four hundred points. A powerful slash later, and Fubuki had nothing but one face-down card on his field and one card in his hand to defend himself. There was no look of defeat in those brown eyes, though. "Masked Dragon, attack directly!"

What would the face-down card be? Another Negate Attack? Maybe even Mirror Face or Magic Cylinder? Or something else? Manjoume thrilled to find out, his gray eyes glinting with excitement.

"Trap, activate!" Here it came! "Call of the Living Dead! Red Eyes Black Dragon, revive!"

_He did what?_ Manjoume groaned even as his monster halted the attack. He could continue, but what would be the point? The mighty dark dragon was much more powerful than Masked Dragon, and Armed Dragon Level Seven had already attacked that turn. It would only hurt him to continue. "I end my turn." All he had in his hand now were Ojama Black, Green, and Yellow. If he pulled something like Fusion, to get Ojama King out on the field, then they could be useful. Until then, he was just going to have to deal with what he had. Not like what he had was bad, of course.

Fubuki moved on with his play quickly. "I summon Red Eyes Wyvern!" That was going to be a tough one to deal with, given its high attack strength. At least he didn't have to worry about the special effect, though. Not just yet. "Red Eyes Wyvern, attack Masked Dragon!"

Manjoume winced; that would destroy his monster. But that was what Masked Dragon's special effect was all about. "When Masked Dragon is sent to the graveyard from battle, I can summon a Dragon-type monster from my deck that's fifteen hundred attack points or lower. I summon Petit Dragon, in defense mode!" He really needed to put some more dragons in his deck. It really wasn't much, but it would do for now. At least it would keep his life points safe, until the Ojamas would _deign_ to show up in this duel. Or if Fusion would. He wasn't all that particular. Perhaps even Fusion and De-Fusion, so he could destroy all of Fubuki's monsters and do a direct attack with Armed Dragon Level Seven.

"Uh, sorry, Manjoume no aniki," Ojama Green said, peering down at him and interrupting his thoughts. "We kinda don't…want to fight in this duel. Fubuki-san's too nice."

He had not just heard that. He pretended he hadn't even if he had. He was going to kill them all. Slowly and in the most agonizing ways he could devise.

"I set this face-down and turn's over. Come on, Manjoume, make this good!" Fubuki teased. Manjoume's cheeks flamed even harder and this time, he refused to look to where Asuka was. He didn't want to know that she was looking at him.

_I am going to win this duel, with or without them,_ Manjoume swore to himself. With those three rejects refusing to do anything useful, everything was going to depend on this next card. _Great. Now I'm sounding just like Juudai._ He really needed to spend time around better people.

He drew quickly, and a defiant smile broke out. Perfect. Maybe it wouldn't end the duel this time, but everything would be much more in his favor once he played this. Too bad he couldn't actually _play_ it, in the sense of summoning it, but he didn't need to be able to do that in order to use it.

"I activate Armed Dragon Level Seven's special effect! By discarding Despair from the Dark to the graveyard, I destroy all of your monsters with an attack lower than its!" That took care of Red Eyes Black Dragon and Red Eyes Wyvern, leaving Fubuki open for a direct attack once again. And that was what Manjoume went for. Armed Dragon Level Seven's two thousand and eight hundred attack points drove straight at Fubuki.

The brunet duelist screamed as the attack slammed into him, dropping him down to eight hundred life points. He collapsed backward briefly, then straightened up, grinning and wiping at his jaw a bit. "Pretty good. Is that all you've got?"

"For now. I'll finish this next turn." Manjoume promised. Fubuki had no cards in his hand now, so it would all depend on _his_ next draw. Though, unless he got something like Red Eyes Darkness Dragon out, Manjoume was still confident in his ability to win the duel.

Fubuki drew his card and grinned at it for a single moment. "You know, they always say that just one card can turn a duel around. But I think that in this case, it's three cards that are going to turn it around." He flipped it around so that Manjoume, and everyone else, could see it. "Pot of Greed, and whatever two cards that I draw now because of it!"

_It would've been nice if I'd gotten something like Ojama Trio._ That would have sealed up three of Fubuki's monster card slots, _and_ made him take three hundred points of damage whenever one of them was destroyed. A nice little Genocide Cutter from Armed Dragon Level Seven would have finished him off nicely.

Manjoume didn't like the sound of that at all. Fubuki drew his cards, then turned one around quickly. "I play Swing of Reminiscence!" Manjoume remembered that card so very clearly. It was the one Fubuki had lent to Juudai to help free Asuka from the Society of Light just a few months earlier. He sighed happily just at the sight of it. "And by its effect, I summon Hound Dragon back from the graveyard!" Wait, what?

Fubuki grinned cheerfully as he pointed to his face-down card. "I activate Burst Breath! By tributing a Dragon-type from the field, I destroy all of your monsters who defense is equal to or lower than the monster I just tributed. And what I'm tributing is Hound Dragon!"

The calculation was made in an instant. Both Petit Dragon and Armed Dragon Level Seven had less defense points than Hound Dragon, and just as he realized that, they both exploded, leaving him defenseless now. Not even a face-down card to protect himself. _I still have over three thousand life points,_ he reminded himself. _And now he doesn't have any monsters._ There had to be a way.

"And now, by removing the Red Eyes Wyvern in my graveyard from play, I Special Summon Red Eyes Black Dragon!" Fubuki threw one hand in the air as the monster revived for the third and final time. Manjoume stared, his mind suddenly locked down. Only one thought managed to squeak through.

_It doesn't have enough attack points to finish me off._ Even if it attacked directly, he would still have seven hundred, and who knew what his next card would bring?

"Lastly, I play Dragon's Heart! By sending three dragon-type monsters in my deck to the graveyard, I can increase the attack of one dragon on the field by a thousand points!"

Oh. So that was what was going to happen. Manjoume stared at the immense dragon, and nothing at all in between his life points and that burning stream of fire. "I hate you," he muttered, glaring at the Ojamas as they quivered behind him.

_Though, it's not that bad,_ he thought as the flame scorched through him. _It's kind of like being beaten by Tenjoin-kun and Shishou at the same time._ He could get used to that feeling. Maybe someday he'd duel Tenjoin-kun again and see what it was like when they were both at their peak.

He closed his eyes and sighed in relief once it was all over with. Maybe he wouldn't strangle the Ojamas all that badly. This time.

"Whew! That was an awesome duel, wasn't it?" Fubuki declared, brushing his jacket off some. "You put up a hell of a fight, Manjoume-kun, and next time, I want to see those Ojamas of yours in action! You would've beaten me with them!"

"They weren't in the mood," Manjoume muttered as he headed off of the dueling grounds. He didn't even bother looking at Juudai as he went over to find someplace to be alone with his thoughts, and the mental image of Asuka dueling against him one more time, fairly.

Fubuki laughed some, but it wasn't the kind of laugh that made Manjoume want to hide anywhere. Rather, he shot a look over at the older student, and his cheeks unaccountably began to flush again. "Once I announce the last duelists, I'll get you some cider, okay?" Fubuki said. Manjoume grumped a little but stood where he was. The prospect of a nice refreshing drink with Fubuki was enough to clear any residual bad mood from the Ojama Rebellion.

Hachiro and Baou still watched, and Hachiro could not at all control his joy. There would only be three duels that night, and with two already done, that meant he already knew who was going to be next. Everything was ready. The remote control was in his pocket ready to be activated at a moment's notice, while Baou was ready to take his place when the time came. In just a matter of _minutes_ the coward would be shrieking in ultimate terror, and the soothing laughter of everyone as they mocked the fool would be balm to Hachiro's ears.

"Your time _has_ come, Yuuki Juudai," he whispered, clenching his fists and staring at the back of Juudai's head. "Finally."

**To Be Continued**


	7. Strike of Vengeance

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** Strike of Vengeance  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 19,140  
**Chapter Word Count:** 2,774  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 7 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. This picks up right where the last chapter left off. Also, I use the anime effects for cards, in case anyone was wondering. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

As soon as his name and Hachiro's were announced, Juudai bounced over to the dueling arena. His deck was ready and eager to duel, and so was he. Of course, that was generally his natural condition anyway, as virtually everyone there knew.

"Hey! So you're Hachiro? The one that Kenzan's friend knows?" Juudai was too busy thinking how great this duel was going to be to worry himself over just what Kenzan's friend's name was. This guy was supposed to play a fiend deck, which meant he'd be getting the real scary duel that he'd wanted for this party.

Hachiro nodded slightly, and Juudai peered at him a bit more closely. "Hey! It's you! The guy that I bumped into the other day! I didn't know you played a fiend deck."

"You didn't ask, either." Hachiro replied, his voice slightly bitter. That was just like Juudai. Nothing mattered to him but what made him personally happy. What an idiot. _At last._ He fingered the device in his pocket slightly. Very soon he would get everything started.

"Well, if you're ready, I'm ready!" Juudai declared, shuffling his deck. "I hope you're ready for a great duel!"

Hachiro smiled just the tiniest bit. "I don't think you'll have ever had a duel like this before. It's going to be mind-blowing." He shuffled his own deck and slid it into the slot in his duel disk. "By the way, does it feel a bit cold to you?" He ran a hand over the duel disk carefully; he'd modified it a bit in order to go along with his scheme. Now, he triggered the activation button. It wasn't actually going to _be_ cold, but a few well-placed holograms would at least make people think that it was.

Juudai tilted his head a bit and shrugged. "Not really." He drew his first hand and started to study it thoughtfully. "You know, you're a lot nicer than I thought you were."

Hachiro ground his teeth together. The duel hadn't even begun properly yet and already he was annoyed at Juudai. Of course, he effectively lived in a state of annoyance with Juudai, so that wasn't very hard to do. "I was in a bad mood the other day," he lied smoothly. Let Juudai believe whatever lies that would keep him happy. He touched the button again briefly, triggering the next phase of events, even as he drew his own cards and examined what they were giving him.

Even with Baou actually there, and remaining hidden until Hachiro summoned him to the field, this would probably be a painful duel for him. Whatever idiotic moves that Juudai made would be annoying to have to counter. He'd picked up enough to know that the Osiris Red student used a combination of Elemental Heroes and Neo-Spacians (whatever they were, he'd never heard of them before himself) in his deck, and his key card was Fusion.

_I should've tried to seal that. If he's lucky enough to get in here and not have flunked out already, he probably has some sort of way around that, though._ But he had a few cards in there that he doubted Juudai had ever seen or had to deal with before, ones that he'd handpicked to crush this ridiculous opinion Juudai had that he was a good duelist and the leader of the school.

Winds began to pick up, sending random scraps of paper that anyone who had been paying full attention to anything other than the prior duels might have noticed hadn't actually existed before. But since virtually everyone there _had_ been paying attention to those duels, no one did notice that. Juudai frowned, putting up one hand to block the wind from his face.

"We're not going to have a storm, are we?" he asked no one in particular. "I don't think there was supposed to be rain today."

"It does look a bit weird up there," Hachiro nodded, peering up at the clouds, which also hadn't been there a short time earlier. Inwardly, he smirked even more. He could already hear Juudai screaming for mercy in his mind, and soon it would be in his ears. Just another few moments to go.

His hand was good, not quite perfect, and Baou hadn't shown up yet. But some very nice cards had, and he decided it was time to get all of this started. After all, his little show had been worked out to coincide with the duel, and the sooner for his victory, the better.

"I play the Ritual Spell Card, Zera Ritual, in order to summon Zera the Mant!" Baou had always been his key card, but this was one of the most powerful cards that he had in his deck, at two thousand eight hundred attack points. No special effect, but it didn't need it. Sheer power, and the rest of his deck, made up for that. He tributed Caius the Shadow Monarch and Candle of Fate from his hand for the rest of the cost, and Zera the Mant rose up from a swirl of shadows to take his place on the field, hissing darkly. He set two cards face-down and ended his turn.

Juudai blinked, looking over at the powerful creature, then grinned. "Whoa. Not bad for your first turn. But let's see what I've got!" He whipped three cards from his deck, shoving them forward. "I play Fusion, fusing Burst Lady and Featherman to Fusion Summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

Oh, that _would_ be slightly difficult to deal with: if it hadn't been for one of his face-down cards. Of course, Juudai wouldn't attack with it. There was too much of a difference in their attack points. Unless he had something to change that, such as an equip card…

"And now I play Skyscraper!" Or that. He should've guessed that an Elemental Hero deck would have their field spell in it. No matter; his face-down card was ready for it. "Flame Wingman, attack his…"

"Hold on!" Hachiro raised one hand, pointing towards one of his traps. "I activate Anti-Fusion Device, which destroys one face-up Fusion monster on the field!" And since there was only one that fit those requirements…well, that was easy enough to figure out.

He held back a smile as a small silvery device appeared at Flame Wingman's feet for a moment, then exploded, destroying Juudai's favorite monster. He cast a quick glance over to see how Johan was reacting. _Huh. You'd think he'd be glad to see such a good move._ Well, no matter. Obviously Andersen had very little taste.

"Okay, no problem." Juudai only shrugged, grinning still, and summoned Clayman in defense mode before setting the last card in his hand face-down. That was probably something intended to stop Hachiro's impending attack. Hachiro didn't care. Whatever Juudai tried would fail.

But first, it was time to upgrade the intensity of the other half of his plan. Another brush by the control button, and the wind grew even worse, this time bringing with it a roar of thunder, thunder that also had a voice in it. It wasn't a very clear voice, but it was a very deep and dark voice, the very voice of doom.

"What is _that_?" Juudai's eyes narrowed as he looked up, trying to find the source of the trouble. "Is something happening?"

"I think it might be!" Shou squeaked a little, his eyes round with shock. "This is getting weird."

Hachiro smiled just a little but, but kept it hidden. "It's Halloween. Who knows what can happen tonight."

Juudai's attention flickered briefly around the area, then returned to Hachiro. "Let's keep on playing. If something wants to bother us, I'm going to finish this duel first!"

"If that's the way you want it. _I'm_ not scared." Hachiro spoke the utter truth. He knew quite well that there was nothing to be scared of. Juudai _was_ however, it was evident in the tightness of his shoulders and the way he kept looking around the area. Everything was going according to plan. "I summon Dark Hunter! Dark Hunter's effect depends on how many Dark monsters I've got in my graveyard, and since I have two, his attack strength goes up to two thousand!"

Hachiro smiled a bit. He'd at least take half of Juudai's life points with this attack. Unfortunately it couldn't be any more than that. But better half than none. "Zera the Mant, attack Clayman!"

Zera obeyed at once, shooting across towards Clayman, one clawed hand raised to strike the defending monster down. But before the blow could be struck, Juudai retaliated. "Trap, activate! Hero Barrier! As long as I have one Elemental Hero on the field, I can negate one attack!"

Murmurs of approval came from the crowd, and Hachiro growled to himself. _No reason to attack with Dark Hunter. Clayman's defense points are equal to Dark Hunter's attack points right now. It wouldn't do anything at all._ "Turn end." He'd take care of it on his next turn. Juudai couldn't stop him forever.

Again the thunder rolled, and this time the voice was a little clearer, though not all that much. Hachiro stifled a smirk when he saw how tense Juudai was getting. Excellent.

"I play Fusion Recovery," Juudai said, sliding the card he'd just drawn into the graveyard after playing it, and recovering two of the cards he'd already put there. "And I Special Summon Rampart Gunner, in defense mode!"

Hachiro did not stifle his smirk this time. He could see Juudai drawing breath to activate the special effect, which would have cost him a thousand life points. He was willing to give them up: but only on his terms.

"At a price of a thousand life points, I activate Skill Drain! No effect monster can use its effect now!" That would cause Baou a bit of a problem, but nothing he couldn't deal with. There were other ways to upgrade a monster's attack, after all.

Juudai's grin was back, and Hachiro mentally scoffed. No one could be _that_ cheerful. "You've studied my deck, haven't you?"

"I'd be an idiot not to. You're supposed to be the best duelist here, after all." Hachiro knew that for the falsehood it was. But he _had_ read up on Juudai's deck, after all.

There was nothing else that Juudai could do at the moment, with no cards in his hand, and he ended his turn. Hachiro drew his own and chuckled under his breath. _Hello, Baou._ He couldn't properly summon Baou just yet, however. But he had a way to get the stage set for him. "I set this monster face-down," he said, doing just that. "Zera the Mant, attack Rampart Gunner!"

This time, there was nothing to get in the way, and Juudai's fusion monster disappeared into a spray of sparkles. Again the thunder rolled, and this time the voice was loud and clear.

**Yuuki Juudai.** Hachiro had chosen exactly what would be said. It hadn't been easy, either, but he'd worked it out. He watched as Juudai stiffened even more and looked up towards the heavens, still thinly visible even through the holograph of Skyscraper. **I will have the souls of all of those who dwell within this school: unless you duel and defeat my avatar.**

Juudai swallowed for a moment, concern clouding his eyes, then straightened up. "And who is that?"

This was what Hachiro had been waiting for. One of many events, at least. He cried out, dropping to one knee, and as he did, he touched another hidden button on his duel disk. This surrounded him with a faint dark glow, or at least a reasonable facsimile of one. Ah, the wonders of holographic technology. "This boy is my avatar." He pitched his voice deeper and rougher, as he imagined it might sound like if something or someone else were using his vocal cords. "Defeat him and your school will be safe. Lose, and all of these souls belong to _me_."

There was nothing but silence. Hachiro rose to his feet, holding himself upright and stiff. He could feel Baou's silent presence, encouraging him to keep up the good work. Juudai stared at him, then abruptly nodded. "All right. Let's get to this. Are you done with your turn, Hachiro? Or whoever you are now?"

He was falling for it! Hachiro would have gloated if that wouldn't have spoiled too much. Instead, he allowed himself a cold smirk. "No. Dark Hunter, attack Juudai directly!"

And this time, just as he had planned, Dark Hunter slashed two thousand of Juudai's life points away. The Osiris Red fell back a little, clutching at his chest, and Hachiro rejoiced. One more strike would finish it, and he would take that on the next turn. "Now, turn end."

Juudai rebalanced himself and drew quickly, a seriousness in his gaze that Hachiro had never dreamed could be there. He reassured himself quickly that it was false. Just something to make Juudai look better in front of an audience. Inside, he was quaking with fear.

"I play Graceful Charity! I'll draw three cards from my deck, and send two of them to the graveyard!"

Oh, that was a very commonly used ploy. Hachiro almost hoped that he'd get _three_ cards that he could use, just for the joy of forcing him to have to discard two of them. The pressure was building on him, and he would make a mistake. It was inevitable.

"I set this card face-down," Juudai said, setting it out in his monster card zone and sliding the other two into his graveyard. Hachiro only caught sight of the one on top, which was a green stylized H. That was probably H-Heat Heart. Too bad. Those five hundred extra attack points could have been useful. "Turn end."

The next card that Hachiro drew was one of the others he'd chosen to defy and deny Juudai's fusion-based deck. He set it out; when Juudai's next turn came he'd activate it and seal the majority of the fool's ploys. That was assuming he couldn't just finish the duel this turn, which was quite likely. One attack to destroy that defense monster, and the second would clean up the rest of Juudai's life points.

"Zera the Mant! Attack that face-down monster!" He watched in savage glee as Zera launched over there and struck down at the hidden creature. The card flipped upward, and a winged fuzz ball appeared briefly. _Hane Kuriboh._ He smiled slightly; that effect wouldn't…

Wait. There was something about that effect.

"When Hane Kuriboh is sent to the graveyard, I don't take any damage for the rest of that turn!" Juudai declared with a cheerful grin. "Skill Drain can't affect that, because Hane Kuriboh's in the graveyard when it happens, and Skill Drain only affects monsters that are on the field!"

Damn. Well, he'd known that Juudai had unholy luck, to convince everyone of what he had for so long. He kept his face as neutral as he could and nodded abruptly, ending his turn.

Juudai drew and played Pot of Greed, drawing two more cards once he had. Hachiro's instincts screamed at him suddenly, and Baou's voice was a moment behind it. _He's going to play a fusion. Stop him! Stop him now!_

"I play Non-Fusion Area!" Hachiro declared, not quite keeping his voice as dark as he'd had it before. He didn't think Juudai would notice. "Now, neither of us can play fusion monsters!"

Juudai blinked a couple of times, then shrugged. "All right. If that's the way you want to play it. I use E-Emergency Call to place Sparkman in my hand, and then I summon Sparkman!" The powerful hero of electricity appeared before them with a defiant shout, and Juudai went on. "Sparkman, attack Dark Hunter!"

It took Hachiro a moment to fully grasp why that had happened, until it dawned on him that Skyscraper was still in effect. His own holograms were mixing in with it, darkening the area so that the fake city buildings weren't quite as visible. Sparkman's Spark Flash blasted across the field, wrapping around Dark Hunter and destroying him. Hachiro took a step back as his life points dropped by six hundred points. _I'll get him for that._ For someone like him, an _Obelisk Blue_, to be hurt by an _Osiris Red_! There would be revenge indeed!

"I play Cyclone!" he declared moments later once Juudai's turn had ended and he'd drawn his own card. "And I destroy Skyscraper!" That would _never_ happen again! His glorious plan was never going to fail because of this _Red_! "Zera the Mant, attack Sparkman!"

**To Be Continued**


	8. Fight For Fun

**Disclaimer:** All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.  
**Story Title:** Halloween Tricks  
**Chapter Title:** Fight For Fun  
**Characters:** Juudai, Johan  
**Story Word Count:** 22,287  
**Chapter Word Count:** 3,147  
**Genre:** Friendship, Humor, Supernatural  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Status:** 8 of 8 chapters  
**Notes:** This takes place in between Juudai vs. Johan's duel in 106 and 107, and Juudai vs. O'Brien in 108 and 109. This picks up right where the last chapter left off. Also, I use the anime effects for cards, in case anyone was wondering. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** Juudai gets it into his head to throw a Halloween party to welcome the transfer students. But there's one new student who thinks there's a much better way to spend the holiday of the spirits.

* * *

Juudai fell back a bit as the insectoid warrior smashed through Sparkman and drove his life points down even farther. _I've got to win._ Whatever this was, it wasn't what Saiou, or the Light of Ruin, or whatever that had been had predicted, and it wasn't what he'd dreamed about just a couple of weeks earlier. It was something that he could handle. But at the same time, there was something off about the whole situation. It didn't _feel_ right.

Juudai had always been able to get to know people through their dueling. With each turn of this duel, he grew more and more certain of one thing: he'd been dueling Hachiro all along. Not something or someone wearing him, as had happened before. But this was the real person.

_All right. So why all of this?_ Juudai _liked_ having fun with duels. To think that someone was trying to scare everyone else, and obviously not in a fun way for Halloween, annoyed him. He'd went to a lot of trouble to set all of this up, and now people were getting scared. If winning, and winning hard, was what it took to get fun back, then Juudai was prepared to do it.

He was already fairly sure on how he was going to win. His deck had been giving him what he needed all along. No one had _said_ anything to him, but he didn't need it to know what the cards wanted to do.

He shot a quick look over at Hachiro's side of the field; Zera the Mant and that face-down monster were still there. Skill Drain made it hard for him to use some of his better monsters, but he could get around it, as he already had with Hane Kuriboh. Not to mention, it wasn't as if Skill Drain were going to be that much of a problem for very long. He'd have to work fast to finish this duel, find out what was going on with Hachiro, and then have as much fun as possible until they absolutely _had_ to go to bed.

With a single smooth movement, he pulled his next card and could not help the broad grin that burst forth across his features. _Just one more and I've got it all._ He trusted that his deck would come through for him, just like it always had.

"I play O-Oversoul, and summon back Clayman in defense mode!"

Manjoume groaned audibly from the crowd. "Juudai, just finish him and get it over with. Stop playing around."

"Hey, playing around is what I do best!" Juudai retorted, grinning.

"Don't remind me."

Hachiro glared at them all, his voice darker and deeper once again. "May I remind you that your _souls_ are on the line here?"

Whatever response he might have expected could not have been what he got. Manjoume didn't so much as look nervous. "Juudai's going to win. You've already lost, you just haven't figured it out yet."

"Aniki never loses!" Shou declared fiercely, echoed a moment later by Kenzan. "Well, almost never! But he won't lose to _you_!"

Hachiro waved one fist at Juudai. "We'll just see about that! I'm like nothing you've ever seen before! I'm going to devour all of your souls!"

Manjoume tilted his head a little, his gray eyes distant. "Actually, you're not."

"Of course I'm going to devour your souls!" Hachiro's voice briefly lost that deepness, and he sounded more like a fifteen year old whose voice was just starting to break.

The black Osiris snorted, glaring at him contemptuously. "What I meant was that you're like nothing we've ever seen before. We _have_ seen all kinds of people and creatures and cosmic abominations that want to devour our souls." He started to tick off on his fingers. "There were the Seven Stars. Most of those were dark duels that threatened to kill whoever lost them. Kagemaru wasn't a pushover, either."

"How would you know?" Shou taunted. "You weren't the one dueling him!"

"Shut up!" Manjoume glared over at the smaller boy, who only grinned mischievously back. Pretending to ignore him, Manjoume kept on going. "Then there was Saiou, who was a real pain." Those who had known Manjoume the previous year tried to maintain a straight face, since Manjoume himself hadn't been that easy to get along with then either. "We've seen a whole lot of people and creatures that say they want to end the world, eat our souls, or whatever it is they want. You're nothing all that special."

Hachiro very nearly exploded at that. "How can you, Manjoume Jun, be saying all of that? You're sticking up for that…for that _Osiris Red_! For that guy who beat you! You're too good to be beaten by someone like him! You shouldn't be wearing that, you should be in _Blue_ where you belong!"

A collective sigh rose up from every third year and at least half of the second years. "Manjoume-kun wears that because he earned it," Asuka said, stepping forward a little. "He's come a long way from being who he was when he first started here." She glanced at him, and very few were surprised to see him blushing beet red. "Though he has a long way to go, too."

Hachiro shook his head even harder. "He's playing _defensively_! He doesn't have anything that can get through my strategies! He can't use his effect monsters. He doesn't have any way to get anything on the field that will stop me from finishing him on my next turn! He only has one card in his hand!"

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, he cocked his head a little, as if listening to someone else. Johan, Manjoume, and Juudai all stared at him. They'd seen that sort of look before, and others had seen it on them.

"You claim to have studied Signore Juudai's deck. Perhaps a pop quiz is in order, na no nae." Professor Chronos strode up, his arms folded over his chest as he stared down at the first year. "What cards does he have that can turn this entire situation around, especially given what he's already played?"

Hachiro didn't act as if he'd heard the question. He shook his head once again, then turned towards Juudai. "Is that all that you're going to do?"

"Nope!" Juudai shook his head and held up the one card he had in his hand. "I play R-Right Justice, destroying one spell or trap card on the field for every Elemental Hero I've got on the field! And since I've only got one, and you've got that Skill Drain, that's what I'm going to be destroying!"

His opponent's jaw dropped for a moment, before a crafty look entered his eyes. "So you've got your monster effects back. Is _that_ all?"

"Yeah. I didn't really need to do that, though. But you'll see why I did once the duel's over with." Juudai grinned cheerfully. Everyone's comments had made him feel that little bit much happier. His party was one hell of a success after all! Everyone was having fun! Well, maybe not Hachiro, but once the duel was over, they could find out what his real problem was.

Hachiro drew a card and the smirk was something horrible to see. Somewhere along the line, no one had actually noticed when, all of the special effects that weren't directly related to the duel had just stopped. Hachiro didn't care what anyone thought anymore. What mattered now was just beating Juudai in this duel, and Baou had promised that he would do that for him. This very card proved it.

"I play Book of Taiyou, turning one face-down monster face-up! And the monster that I choose is _mine_, Guardian Baou!" Book of Taiyou, when played on a face-down Guardian Baou, enabled the duelist to bypass the summoning requirements necessary. The plan was simple and perfect in his mind. "Zera the Mant, destroy his Clayman!"

**Yes. This will be your victory.** Baou didn't care what this school had suffered before his arrival. He didn't care about their souls or about anything but winning the duel. _There is something strange about this Yuuki Juudai._ He hadn't realized it until the duel was in progress. Power slept within that boy. _Great_ power.

Power that he either wanted, or wanted to destroy. Before it could awaken, and destroy _him_.

Once again, Zera swept over to Juudai's side of the field and brought his fist down in a crushing attack that blew Clayman away completely. Juudai's life points were down to a mere four hundred, and with Baou's natural attack points being twice that, there was nothing that could be done to stop this duel from being Hachiro's.

"Guardian Baou! My favorite monster! And the one that's going to win this duel for me! Attack Juudai's life points directly!" There was something of a collective gasp from the spectators as Baou leaped forward, ready to blast at Juudai with all of his strength.

Juudai waited until Baou was just about to hit, before he made his move. "I activate the effect of Necro Guardna, sleeping in my graveyard! By removing him from play, I can negate the attack of one of your monsters!" Baou's fist was stopped by the filmy presence of Necro Guardna as he folded his arms protectively around Juudai.

"I wasn't aware that _you_ were here, Baou." Necro Guardna spoke softly.

"You might say that I was Special Summoned." Baou smirked briefly as he returned to his side of the field. "I won't be staying long, unfortunately." He could wreak quite a bit of havoc if he could. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

Juudai blinked a few times. "Hey, I didn't know that you had a spirit partner! That's pretty cool!"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about." Hachiro reacted instinctively, sensing a chance to regain at least some of the ground he'd lost.

Juudai tilted his head to the side. "You mean you can't see him? Too bad. But Guardian Baou's really there, helping you fight."

"A _card_" Hachiro laughed derisively and looked around at everyone else. "Do you believe this? He's so weak he's reduced to fairy tales to try to throw me off my game! He thinks the cards are more than just holograms and paper!" Which they were, but why turn down a chance to shatter Juudai's reputation? That was what this whole duel was about.

"They are." Johan said quietly. "I can see him too. Even if you can't, you've got a bond with him. That's something you should treasure."

Manjoume snorted a little. "Guardian Baou. He's better than _some_ monsters I could name."

Someone else had fastened onto other words that Hachiro had said. "Aniki isn't weak!" Kenzan growled, his eyes flashing in the starlight. "He's beaten better duelists than you!"

Hachiro smirked smugly. "That's what he wants you all to believe. It's just fool's luck. My own cousin had to save him from being stupid back in his first year. I know just how much of an idiot he really is. Just because _you've_ all been fooled doesn't mean that I will be!"

"Oh, really?" Juudai looked a little confused now. "I don't really remember needing to be saved from anything back then. Who was your cousin?"

"I doubt that you'll remember, but it was Takadera Aoi. You, being an idiot, tried to call up a Duel Spirit and my cousin dueled to save you."

Juudai looked over at Shou, and both of them began to laugh. Hachiro didn't like the sound of that, it was just too …too _happy_. Why were they laughing about Juudai's idiocy?

"You've got that all wrong!" Juudai told him, shaking his head. "He was the one who summoned up Psycho Shocker, and Psycho Shocker nearly took him and his friends when he did it. Didn't he tell you that?"

Hachiro snorted some. "He didn't have to. All he had to say was that Psycho Shocker had been summoned and that you were involved, and that was all that I needed to know."

The roar of laughter, all of it directed right at him, nearly took Hachiro off of his feet. Shou clung to Manjoume as he tried to prevent himself from simply falling over with how much he was laughing. Manjoume wasn't exactly being quiet himself, either.

"You've got a great deal to learn, Yamaguichi-kun." Professor Chronos said, struggling to maintain a serious demeanor and failing miserably. "I believe it is your turn, Signore Juudai?"

Juudai nodded and drew his card. Hachiro sneered; whatever it was, there was no way that he could win. His defenses and his strategy were simply too well put together. But Juudai was still _smiling_!

"I play HERO Flash! By removing H-Heat Heart, E-Emergency Call, R-Right Justice, and O-Oversoul from play from my graveyard, I can Special Summon one Normal Elemental Hero of mine, and any Normal Monster that's an Elemental Hero can attack your life points directly this turn!"

Hachiro sneered even more. "All of your really _good_ monsters are the ones with effects. Your _fusion_ monsters. Go ahead. You can't hurt me."

"I Special Summon Elemental Hero Neos!" Juudai declared. The brilliant white hero of the cosmos leaped up beside him, and those with the eyes to see it saw him nod a greeting to Juudai, as well as to Guardian Baou. "Now, attack his life points directly!"

Hachiro had only enough time to see that Neos's attack strength was two thousand and five hundred: three hundred more than his own current life total. Then the powerful monster was in front of him, slicing him down the middle and draining everything from him: his life points, his hope of victory, and his belief that Juudai was a liar and a fraud.

_No one…no one could win like that because of luck. I was wrong. I should've known better._ Juudai might laugh and joke around, but he had still won: because he was a better duelist. Because he'd destroyed a card that hadn't needed to be, in order to get part of his combo where he needed _it_ to be. _All of my studying and I still didn't figure out that he would do that._

He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and saw Juudai looking back at him. "Is that why you pretending to be possessed? Because of what happened with your cousin?"

"I thought…I thought that you'd tricked the whole school. That you weren't really a great duelist and if I could make you scared in front of everyone, then they'd all see the truth. Or what I thought was the truth." Hachiro drooped his head. He wouldn't tell Juudai about how he'd brought in Guardian Baou. It wasn't as if he would be there for much longer, anyway. The spell had only been temporary, and he suspected that it would maybe last another couple of hours at most.

Juudai patted his shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry about it. Everyone makes mistakes. So, you want some cider or something? That was a really fun duel, you know! Maybe we can have another one sometime? I'd really like to see Guardian Baou in action!"

Hachiro found a smile somewhere on his lips. No one seemed to be taking his idiocy all that hard. "Someday. When I'm better at this." Just what 'this' was, he left up to Juudai's imagination.

"You got it." Juudai declared. "And maybe someday, you'll be able to see your partner too. It's been known to happen."

With another wave, he headed over to the refreshments stand, meeting Johan, Shou, and Kenzan along the way. Hachiro watched for a moment or two before he quietly left the area, heading deeper into the forest. He was very tired, and he thought he just might go to bed early.

**He is more than he seems to be.** Baou's voice murmured softly. **Much, much more.**

"You can say that again." Hachiro sighed deeply. "At least, if nothing else good came out of this, I was able to meet you. You always have been my favorite."

Baou appeared before him, arms folded. **Whether or not I can stay, you are my partner, and I am yours. That will remain unchanged until one of us dies.**

Hachiro smiled again, one that had a touch more strength to it. "So, partner. Want to give me a few pointers before you have to go? I think I can use the help."

**Of course.** And if there was a hint of slyness in the smile, Hachiro didn't really care. Baou was a fiend, after all, and despite his having uncovered the truth, Hachiro knew that he wasn't that good of a person either. He would duel Juudai again one day, and that day, he knew that he would be the victor.

Back at the party, the last duel was still the general subject of conversation between Juudai and his friends. "That was a pretty neat way to get around Guardian Baou's summoning restrictions," Johan mused. "He's got talent as a duelist."

"I hope I can duel him again sometime soon." Juudai grinned as he sipped his cup of cider. "What would _you_ have done, Johan?"

As the two of them began to hash out Johan's strategy against such a deck, they wandered farther away from the group, until they stood by the oceanside. They stood there side by side, companionable silence falling over them.

"This was a really great party, Juudai," Johan said quietly. "Thanks for having it."

"No problem. I'd have a dozen more if I could!" Juudai yawned some and stretched. "Too bad that Hachiro can't see Guardian Baou. But maybe he will someday. Like I said, it's been known to happen before. Not everyone can see them from when they're a kid."

And that brought up that same thought as it had when he'd first met Johan. When _had_ he first started to be able to see Duel Spirits? He thought sometimes that he could remember, but then the snatches of imagery floated away on mental winds.

Not so far away, other eyes watched and if she had had a mouth, Yubel would have smiled. She knew what he was thinking. She knew him so very well. She hadn't needed to do anything after all. Her beloved had won without her. And he hadn't even needed those dreadful Neo-Spacians. _It's nearly time, my beloved Juudai. Soon, now. So very soon._

In the morning, Cobra would hand out dis-belts to everyone, and the extreme duels would begin.

Juudai still hoped for the day that Hachiro could see Guardian Baou.

And Guardian Baou returned to his own world, and waited for the day when he would meet Yuuki Juudai again. When that day came, however, it was unlike anything that either of them could have imagined.

**The End**

**Note:** Takadera is a canon character. He showed up in episode 14, and he and his friends Mukouda and Isaka summoned up Psycho Shocker through a Ouija Board. Juudai dueled him to free their souls. For the purposes of this fic, Takadera dropped out of Duel Academia shortly after that, and his cousin got a very garbled account of what happened, so he blamed Juudai for everything.


End file.
